


Marching Band

by often_adamanta



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-16
Updated: 2005-05-15
Packaged: 2017-10-22 07:24:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 22
Words: 39,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/235449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/often_adamanta/pseuds/often_adamanta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>A small thing. Funny, but I found out that not everyone attended school in Texas. duh. And it will probably come up again. So. The grading system I live and breathe goes as follows: A=100-90, B=89-80, C=79-75, D=74-70, F=below 70.</p></blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Despite the fact that it had to be near 100 degrees in direct sunlight, Lij was wearing his highly decorated and hardly used letter jacket on the first day of school. He was a senior this year and did not intend for anyone to forget it.

He parked his duck-taped, junk of a car in the parking lot and walked up the ramp to the double doors of his second home, the band hall of Rockey Peak High School. The doors were required to be locked, but they were always propped open during school hours with a beat-up music stand.

He entered a large, mostly empty room, and threw his backpack along the ground so that it stopped directly beneath his instrument locker, a trick he’d perfected last year.

The room wouldn’t be empty for long. Billy Boyd, oboe player and this year’s head drum major, had corralled some underclassmen into setting up the chairs and stands for rehearsal. Number one suck up, Elijah thought as he opened his locker. Some things never change.

About that time, Dom walked up, and the noise in the immediate area increased by at least a factor of three. Dom was a percussionist, which was all the explanation that needed. They greeted each other by grabbing their crotches and yelling loudly, to the offended twittering of a group of flutes nearby, ending in very manly punches to each other’s shoulders. It wasn’t exactly necessary as they’d seen each other the night before, but hey, it was the first day of school.

Dom caught Billy rolling his eyes at them. As soon as he turned around, Dom flipped him off. “He’s such a fucker,” Dom added, with an eye roll of his own, but Elijah knew he’d never do that to Billy’s face. Billy had an authority that commanded, if not respect, then a certain level of wariness in everyone. “I’m not going to put up with his shit this year, man. Look at him: he’s fucking tiny. I could fucking break him in half. No way those fucking delicate oboe hands could stop me.”

“Christ, are you still on about his fucking hands? You’re as bad as Bloomie.” Bloomie was the resident fag of the band hall. His real name was Bloom, but Bloomie was much more feminine and had the added bonus of sounding like “Blow me” if you said it fast enough.

Dom shot daggers at him. “Up yours, Woody. I’m not a fucking pansy.”

They both turned at the laugh that bubbled up from around waist level. Liv was on the ground, pulling a French horn out of her low locker. She was dressed from head to toe in black, pale blue eyes framed in dark eyeliner. Elijah knew that her lips would be coated to match as soon as rehearsal was over.

“On your knees, Liv, just the way I like you.” Dom took a swaggering step, hips forward and leered at her. She smiled up at him, all teeth, and snapped at the air. “Fuckin’ freak,” Dom growled, but backed away and went to start hauling the percussion equipment.

“One of these days, he’s going to figure out you’re all bark.” Elijah commented as he unearthed his trumpet from its case.

“Nah. That one’s not too bright.” She stood, towering above him in her platform, faux leather boots.

“I’ve met worse,” Elijah replied, but didn’t argue. He moved to his seat as Mr. Jackson, the band director, walked into the room. Elijah settled in for the first class of his senior year: Honors Wind Ensemble, if you were a pompous prick. Elijah called it band.


	2. Chapter 2

“Okay, okay. Your feet have stopped moving.” Elijah leaned back against the double layered, soundproof glass of the practice room door. The freshman girl stared at him, eyes glazed in fear. “Listen, you have the notes. You sound really good. But you have to stop thinking about the notes enough to keep your feet moving in step.” She nodded, a jerky movement. “Okay. Try it one more time, but trust yourself to play and pay attention to your feet.” Elijah could charm anyone if he tried, although he rarely did.

Elijah counted her off and she tried again to pass off the opening bars of their marching show, _Chicago_. Elijah liked _Chicago_ , although he wouldn’t admit it outside the realm of watching girls in skimpy outfits, but a few weeks in and the music was already getting old. He watched her feet, and this time, they kept going, on the beat and everything.

“Excellent.” She beamed at him and held out her chart for him to sign. “Your high notes were more in tune, too. You just need to relax.” She nodded happily and dashed away when he returned the pass off chart. He rolled his eyes. Freshmen.

Elijah peeked into the drum room, but Dom and three other boys were making far too much noise for Elijah to hang out in there. One night of ringing ears was all it had taken for Elijah to decide not to stay in the room when the drum line practiced. He secretly suspected the sound vibrations were getting to Dom’s brain. No reason for him to risk that.

He wandered into the band hall to get his trumpet, thinking he might as well practice. There was an important trumpet solo in the ballad he wanted to try out for.

“Elijah!” Mr. Jackson stopped him as he walked past the office. “Could you come in here for a moment?” Elijah complied, shutting the door behind him and sitting in one of the chairs before the large, horribly cluttered desk. “Is everything going ok? Your mom doing okay?”

“Everything’s normal, thanks.”

“Good, good. Listen, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind tutoring one of the other kids in calculus. I called your teacher, and he said that you were one of his brightest students.”

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with anything else, I don’t mind.” Elijah liked teaching. He was even rather good at it. It was one of the reasons he was section leader, despite the insults it’d earned him from Dom all summer.

“No, no. You’re both in B-day band, so you can study then. I’m not worried about either of you needing the extra practice, and we really can’t afford for Orlando to fail. He’s the strongest clarinet player we have.”

Elijah choked. It was one of those moments where if he’d been taking a drink, he’d have spit it back out. “Orlando? Orlando Bloom?” He was fucking going to tutor Bloomie?

“Yes. Is that a problem?” Mr. Jackson’s eyebrows raised in just that manner that you already knew what the answer would be.

“No, of course not.” Hardest four words of his life.

“Alright. Why don’t you go find him and tell him?” Elijah stood to leave. “Thank you, Elijah.” He turned to his computer.

Elijah walked back out into the hallway. Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. He snorted. “Is there a gayer instrument than the clarinet?”

“The French horn, actually.” Elijah shot daggers at Liv sitting in a corner writing in a blood-red notebook, despite the fact that she was not the cause of his problem.

“You trying to tell me something, Liv?” He asked, words venom-injected.

“Nah, it only affects guys. Every year at region, I sit in that tiny room with fifty other French horns and watch the guys goggle at each other. You’d think having a vagina was as bad as the plague or something.” She bit the end of her pen. “What crawled up your ass and died?”

Elijah smiled tightly. “Mr. Jackson asked me to tutor Bloomie in calculus.”

“Oh man. Orli’s going to have a cow. He doesn’t like you very much,” she told him sincerely, oblivious to Elijah’s growing anger.

“Yeah. And I think it’s a big, fat, fucking picnic!”

“Calm down. It’s not that bad.”

“It’s only a few weeks into school. How can he be failing already?”

“Should I mention biology right now?” Elijah practically growled. “Guess not.”

“That was not my fucking fault.”

“Right.”

“Why do I talk to you?”

“My witty charm and eternal beauty?”

Elijah gave up. “Do you know where he is?”

Liv shrugged. “He’s the band librarian, Lij. Check the music library.”

He stalked off, ranting under his breath. Fuck. Dom was going to piss himself laughing.

Luckily, Elijah wasn’t prone to anger. He decided long ago that genetic predisposition was real, and that his included a mellow, ‘everything’s going fine’ attitude. So even in the short walk to the music library, Elijah was pretty much back to normal when he stepped inside.

Orlando Bloom glanced up from a large notebook, saw who it was and looked away again. Elijah shut the door behind him and rested against it. After a few seconds, Orli pointed vaguely in the direction of several stacks of paper on a nearby table. “The first trumpet parts are right there.” Elijah didn’t move. Eventually, Orli sighed and closed the book. “What?”

“Mr. Jackson asked me to help you with your calculus.” That got Orli’s attention. He narrowed his eyes at Elijah as if weighing his options.

“He asked you?” Elijah nodded. Orli looked faintly disbelieving. “And you said yes?” Elijah shrugged.

Orli wrinkled his nose. “Look, I don’t want you to do this because you have to, or you feel sorry for me or something. I’m sure I’ll figure it out.”

“Really?” Elijah demanded.

“Yes!” Orli snapped, defensive.

“So you don’t need help?” Orli dropped his eyes, flushing slightly. “Well?” Elijah mentally groaned. Why was he pushing this? He’d just been handed a get-out-of-jail-free card, for Christ sake.

“I need help.” The words were forced out of clenched teeth.

“Good. So here’s the thing. I don’t want Mr. Jackson riding my ass because you failed. I really don’t want to hear whatever-the-fuck-her-name-is play that clarinet/saxophone duet because she’s always so fucking flat.” A small smile slipped past Orli’s defenses and onto his face. “And I especially don’t want this to be a big deal. Got it?” Orli nodded. “Okay. Where’s your book?”

Orli reached beside his chair and pulled it out of the bag next to him as Elijah dropped into a chair, feet up on the table.

“One more thing,” Elijah added as he took the book. “I don’t feel sorry for people. You won’t get pity from me.” It was as close to serious as Elijah got, and Orli stared at him in confusion. Elijah glanced down at the book. “Chapter one. Limits.”

Twenty minutes later, Elijah thought Orli was starting to get it, which was good, because that was all the time they were getting today as Dom stuck his head in the door.

“Damn, Elijah. They told me you were locking lips in here, but I figured it was Liv or that slutty trombone chick, not Bloomie. Can’t leave you alone five minutes without you going fag happy on me. What’s next? Rainbow pride bracelets?”

“Don’t be such a fucktard, Dom. Dr. Jackson asked me to help him with math.” Elijah shoved the book back at Orli and joined Dom in the hallway.

“If Bloomie needs help with math, doesn’t that make him the fucktard.”

“No, that makes him a fuckwit. You’re the only fucktard in my book.”

“Ahhh, Elijah. I didn’t know you cared.” Elijah smacked the back of his head as the bell rang and they headed to class.

\-----

Liv found Orli face down at the table they shared when she reached their astronomy class. She sat down with unflappable grace even as the teacher scolded her for being tardy, again.

Orli turned his head to look at her. “How is it we leave at the same time, for the same place, and I always get here before you?”

“It’s hard to look sinister and unapproachable while scurrying to class. I make it a point to never scurry. And you try walking around in these shoes!” Orli smiled weakly, shaking his head where it rested against the table.

“As I recall, I have tried those shoes. They weren’t that bad. And with your unholy power of appearing sinister and dark, I think you might be the only one on earth capable of pulling it off while scurrying.”

Liv preened and smiled. “Alright, then. I’ll try to be on time.”

“That would be good.”

“So.” She paused dramatically. “What happened with Elijah?”

He jerked up off the table and stared at her. “What are you talking about? Nothing happened with Elijah. Not a fucking thing.”

“God, Orli, relax. ‘Methinks thou dost protest too much,’ or whatever that stupid quote is. He told me Mr. Jackson asked him to tutor you.”

“What? He’s telling people?”

“Orlando. Breathe. He didn’t tell people, he told me. I’m not people,” she ended, with an expression of distaste at the thought. “What did you think of him? He’s not as bad as you thought, huh?”

“I guess not.”

“And?”

“And he’s going to drive me crazy. But I might pass calculus along the way.”

Liv nodded serenely. “That’s what I thought.”

Orli stuck his tongue out at her. “None of that woman’s mystique, I-know-it-all crap.”

“Too late. And it’s true.”

“Whatever.” The teacher called Orli’s name and he twisted toward the front. “The moon’s sidereal month,” he answered her question. “At some point, are we going to learn about something we can’t study with the naked eye?”

The teacher’s eyes almost burst out of her head, and Liv was hard pressed to hold in very un-sinister giggles.


	3. Chapter 3

“Holy fuckin’ hell, could it be any hotter out here?” Elijah took a large drink from his gallon-sized water jug.

“Oh, you are not allowed to fucking complain until you have an instrument that needs a fucking shoulder harness.” Everywhere the shoulder harness touched him, Dom’s gray shirt was shaded darker with sweat. “What is Jackson’s fucking problem today, anyway? We’ve normally had ten water breaks by now, and this is only our second. I wouldn’t be surprised if the womenfolk started fainting at any fucking moment.”

“The womenfolk?” An incredulous voice asked, and they turned to see Miranda, one of the drum majors staring at them, appalled.

“Oh, yeah. But I wasn’t referring to you, obviously,” Dom sneered.

“It’s a BOA year,” Miranda told him, ignoring his comment with practiced ease. “Mr. Jackson always gets worked up about it.”

“The fuck?”

Elijah punched Dom. “That alone earns you the title fucktard, fucktard. Bands of America? Big fucking competition?”

“I knew that,” Dom mumbled. They started back onto the marching field. “But there are like ninety ‘big fucking competitions’. I’m supposed to keep track of them all?”

Elijah shrugged. “I can,” he bragged, laughing when Dom flipped him off.

The rest of rehearsal was long, hot and miserable. Mr. Jackson watched them from his tower, big straw hat protecting him from the sun that Elijah knew was turning his own skin pink, despite his ball cap and sunscreen. It was the first time they had tried to run through the second song carrying their instruments, and the only thing standing between several severe collisions were the drum majors walking around. Even still, Kevin and the freshman girl Elijah’d passed off earlier that week managed to smash into each other. The girl got the business end of his trumpet to her head, giving Kevin bloody lips.

When it was over, Elijah could think of several words to describe the situation, but Dom’s bellowed “What a fucking disaster! This fucking blows!” pretty much covered it. It also got the entire percussion section thirty push ups, counted off by the two girls on the drumline who were exempt from push ups because the boys kept hitting their asses with sticks and making lewd comments about other positions that caused a sweat.

He picked up his water and started to walk back to the band hall, but was stopped by the same freshman girl. Elijah wracked his mind for her name. Dammit, why was he so bad with names?

“Claire?” he remembered suddenly. She nodded. “Is your head alright?”

She shrugged and looked around nervously, but most everyone was gone already. “Better than Kevin’s lips.”

“Do you need something?”

“I-I was hoping you could help me with my sets,” she stuttered, blushing fiercely although you could hardly see it in her sun-reddened face.

“Of course.” Elijah set his water and trumpet down and motioned her back onto the field. He pulled a tattered, rolled up packet of set charts from his side pocket. He checked all her coordinates. Then he pulled out a pair of Dom’s drumsticks he kept with him in case Dom forgot his, the dumbass, and used them as an impromptu metronome, running her through the song.

She was really having problems with only one set, a backward move that needed huge steps. They ran it about twenty times, the first couple with Elijah’s hands on her shoulders to force her to take the correct step size.

“That’s it. You got it.”

“Thank you, Elijah.” She smiled at him and ran off to the band hall.

“I think she likes you,” Orlando commented from his seat in the shade of one of the portables.

“That’s funny. Dom was saying the same thing about you the other day.”

“You know, you’re not a complete bastard. Why do keep acting like one?”

“Stop it, I’ll blush.”

“Whatever. I’m supposed to be getting you for the officer meeting.”

Elijah groaned. “Christ on fucking crutches, what could we possibly be having another meeting for?”

“Spirit week next week. First pep-rally and game and all that.”

“God, I fucking hate these meetings.”

“Yeah. I know what you mean. You think I volunteered to come get you because I like you?”

“I hope not,” Elijah muttered, making no effort to hurry up and get to the meeting.

\-----

Twenty minutes into the meeting, out of sheer, mind-numbing boredom, Elijah started making faces at Orlando, although not so much making faces as creatively demonstrating his sudden need to suicide. It became a challenge to see how loud he could get Orli, who was desperately trying not to disrupt the meeting, to laugh.

Just as Elijah started to pantomime hanging himself, Billy snapped. “Would you two stop flirting with each other and pay attention!” It was a canned phrase, something Billy said to somebody at just about every meeting, but the sudden hush in the room told Elijah that it must be awfully close to rumor.

Orli raised his eyebrows. Elijah sighed and flipped Billy off, keeping every hint of concern out of his manners.

“Elijah…” Mr. Jackson said faintly, a warning. After a few seconds, the meeting continued.

Elijah remained composed and quiet, but inside he was seething. He’d known tutoring Bloomie was going to cause some laughs, but this was fucking ridiculous.

\-----

“Elijah, wait up!” Orli’s long legs pulled him across the mostly empty parking lot. “Elijah!”

“What do you want, Bloomie?” Elijah asked, not stopping and not looking at him.

“Oh, Jesus, are you seriously mad at me for something _Billy_ said?”

“Look, the last thing I needed were rumors about us, okay? Excuse me if I’m not too thrilled about it.”

“ _I_ didn’t start them!”

“Us standing here alone in the darkening parking lot is sure doing a lot to prevent them!”

“Are you saying this is my fault?”

“I’m not the one who’s gay!”

“No! You’re not! You’re not gay! You’re just the guy who’s been shitting all over me since I came here, making me out to be the poster child of the local faggots’r’us club! Think long and hard about why people automatically assume everything I touch turns gay before you start accusing _me_ of starting rumors! And you listen here, you fucking jackass, I don’t care how pretty your eyes are, I’m not too excited about people believing that I’m actually pursuing an immature, homophobic, chauvinistic pig like you! So don’t you dare try to put this off on me, Wood.” Orli stared at a shocked Elijah in disgust for a few seconds, then spun around and headed back the other way.

“Orlando…” Elijah called after him. “Orlando, come back here.” He stopped and turned to glare at Elijah but didn’t move toward him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” Orli walked back over. “What do you need?”

“The calculus test is Friday,” Orli answered, uncomfortably. “I was hoping you’d help me with the review.”

“I can’t tonight. I have to get home.” Elijah thought for a minute. “Reread your notes and then do the review problems like a practice test. Get here early tomorrow and we’ll go over them, okay?”

“Okay.”

Elijah looked at him for a second. “Why are you taking calculus, anyway? It’s not required.”

“I hate math. My dad thinks music is a waste of time. Our compromise was that I could stay in band if I continued with math.”

“That blows.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re not going to fail.”

“Like you care.”

“Well, I don’t want Mr. Jackson upset with me. And don’t tell the truth when I’m trying to be nice!”

A smile crept back onto Orli’s face. “Okay. Sorry. I’ll see you in the morning,” Orli turned and walked toward his car that was, Elijah was amused to see, in the opposite direction he took during his tantrum earlier.

“You think I have pretty eyes?” Elijah asked as he walked off.

“Fuck off, Wood. I’m too good for you.”

Elijah just laughed, got in his junk heap of a car and drove home.


	4. Chapter 4

Liv walked through the band hall amid a chorus of whistles and catcalls. Every guy she passed took an unconscious step closer, only to back off again as she glared at them. She was wearing capris and a tight, low cut top that was pink to match her shoes and eye shadow. Her hair was braided into pigtails with small bows on the end.

Dom and Elijah watched her come toward them, shocked. “Is that Liv?” Dom asked.

“Yeah.”

“You dated that?”

“I dated her,” Elijah corrected him. “In middle school. And she dressed like that back then, too.”

“It’s almost enough to take back the hour I spent laughing at you when I found out you two dated.” Dom smirked. “Almost.”

“Whatever.”

“One word, Dom,” she warned as she crouched to get her French horn. “One word and you lose whatever small excuse for a dick you have.”

Dom considered this a moment. He turned to Elijah and said, “Later, man,” before walking off.

“That might have been the smartest thing he’s ever done,” Liv declared, standing up again. “You look hideous.”

Elijah laughed and looked down at his undershirt and boxers over his regular clothes. “You, too.”

“Thanks. Orli helped me pick it out. Wait till you see him, he let me dress him up. It was great, makes this whole ‘tacky day’ crap worth it.”

“I bet.”

“Dom wasn’t dressed weird.”

“Nope. He said he didn’t need clothing to be tacky.”

“That’s the truth.”

“Yeah.”

“Orli said you were throwing paper wads at him during the calculus test.”

“Yeah.”

“You pissed him off. Why are you such a jerk to him?”

“Hey, I wasn’t just being a jerk! It had a purpose!”

“Oh, please, like what? Getting him to look at you?”

“No,” Elijah replied icily. “When he starts to panic, he does this weird twisty thing with his hair. Every time he did that, I hit him to distract him. He’s used to doing calculus annoyed with me. I figured that was better than panicking.”

“Okay. That is good.”

“Yeah. And you know what? Now that I’ve justified myself to you, I feel so better!”

Liv sighed. “I guess I deserved that. Sorry. I didn’t mean to hit a nerve or anything.”

“Man, and here I thought that was a favorite hobby of evil incarnate.”

Liv stared at him a few seconds, and Elijah wondered if he’d finally crossed the line with her. Wait, wait, he’d seen this on a national geographic program: what-to-do-if you-are-about-to-be-eaten-alive, only now he couldn’t remember a fucking thing. “I do look like evil incarnate dressed like this, don’t I?” She smiled. “Go study before I hurt you.” Elijah scurried away. He’d seen Liv mad and had no desire for a repeat performance.

Billy and Miranda were practicing their conducting patterns out in the hall as he passed. Miranda was wearing several bright, clashing colors and Billy was in skirt. Wait, what? “You’re wearing a skirt?”

“A kilt,” Billy replied, and Elijah could tell from the tired tone that he’d been asked more than several times already.

“It looks like a skirt.”

“This from the man with his underwear on over his clothes.”

“Point taken,” Elijah admitted, continuing to the music library, fully expecting that to be the most disturbing thing he saw, even on tacky day.

Oh, how very, very wrong he was. He opened the music library door to the impossible image that was the prince of darkness using the copier. Elijah’s eyes nearly busted out of head.

The figure in black turned toward him, heavily lined eyes narrowing in a frown. Dark hair stuck out in a pointy, riotous mess, skin paled and lips painted black. The tight black shirt had been cut down the front and was held together with safety pins, a strip of golden skin visible.

“Orlando?” Elijah managed to ask. His lips began to twitch.

“What?” Orli glowered at Elijah, who had a hand clamped over his mouth to stop the laughter. “I can be goth if I want to.”

Elijah gave up and shrieked with laughter. He slid down the door onto the floor, laughing and giggling until tears rolled down his face. “I can’t breathe… I can’t breathe…” he gasped, the pout on Orli’s heavily made-up face setting him off again.

The door opened abruptly and Elijah fell over, still sitting against it. “I can hear your cackle over the fucking drums, what is going on in… Oh My Fucking God.” The expression on Dom’s face, with the added bonus of being upside down now, started Elijah’s laugh again. Oh, fuck, his stomach hurt. “I told you he was Lucifer!” Dom cried to Elijah, hyperventilating at his feet. “Harmless, you said! No way he’s the fucking Devil himself, you said! I fucking do not watch too much Buffy! I was so right!” Then he left again, letting the door hit Elijah’s head as it shut.

“You two are seriously fucked up in the head. I have to finish these copies.” He returned his attention back to the copy machine.

The door opened again, and Elijah suddenly found himself looking up Billy’s skirt. “Gah!” he screamed and threw himself up and away.

Billy eyed him warily. “Please keep it down,” he requested and left again.

Elijah looked up at Orli from his new place on the floor. “I am so fucking scarred for life.” They both started giggling.

“Well, now you know what men wear beneath their kilts.”

Elijah shuddered. “Oh, God. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to face another fucking skirt again.”

“Careful, that’s what I said after my first date.”

“Oh, funny, ha ha. I bet that skirt didn’t fucking house a dick.”

“No, it didn’t. But then, if it had, I probably wouldn’t have sworn off skirts in the first place.”

Elijah groaned. “TM-fucking-I, Bloomie. Make your copies.”

“What, ordering me around now? I bet Liv has the leash that goes with this choker.”

“Please, God, no.” He was not going to let that image in his head, no, no he wasn’t, absolutely no mental pictures, no way was he… dammit. “Aggh, make it stop.”

“Fantasizing about me?”

“What part of ‘scarred for life’ are you having trouble with?” Elijah rested his head against the cool linoleum beneath him.

“The part where you like it.”

“I really hate you,” Elijah said weakly. Orli just smiled because he knew Elijah well enough now to understand that he’d won this round.

\-----

“Look, I’m just saying this will be the last Friday we have free for a long time,” Dom argued, “October’s only a few weeks off and you know what that means.” Elijah did know what that meant. It meant that, between games, rehearsal and weekend competitions, they’d be practically living in the band hall. “You stayed over at my house this summer and everything was fine,” Dom added.

“I don’t know. I feel like I should be at home.”

“You look like you need to relax and take five minutes for yourself. When’s the last time you got out and had fun? When’s the next time my parents will be out of town?”

“I have fun all the time.”

“Please, Elijah?” Dom asked, ignoring that comment. “You’re my best friend, and I want you at my party. Plus, the hot girl quotient goes way up whenever you’re involved.”

“You suck at flattery.”

“I speak only truth!”

“Right.”

“Do you want me to beg? I’ll beg.”

“Please don’t.”

“What’s the problem, then? What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Of course it’s not a good idea, but when has that ever stopped you?”

“What are you talking about? It always stops me.”

“Remember that bicycle accident? Tell me that ramp was a good idea.”

Elijah sighed. “That was before.”

“That’s what I’m saying, Lij. You need to get out and forget about all the stress and pretend you don’t have to deal with all that crap for a while.”

“I don’t know,” Elijah said again, but Dom sensed his resolve weakening.

“You can always leave if you don’t like it, but one night is not going to make a difference.” Dom grinned at him. “This is our senior year! Our last chance to do these kind of things.”

“If parents or cops show up, I’m outta there.”

“Fine.”

“And I will not be drinking.”

“Completely your choice. But you’ll come?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll come.” Elijah had a feeling he was gonna regret that decision.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small thing. Funny, but I found out that not everyone attended school in Texas. duh. And it will probably come up again. So. The grading system I live and breathe goes as follows: A=100-90, B=89-80, C=79-75, D=74-70, F=below 70.

“Trombones! If I see another person try a suicide, you will all be staying late to clean the band hall!” Several hand gestures greeted Mr. Astin’s threat blared out over the loud speaker, but luckily they were too far up the stands for him to see.

“He seriously needs to have that giant stick up his ass removed,” Dom observed, shaking his head at the assistant band director. Elijah didn’t say anything. They’d had this conversation before. “He yelled at me for not having my band shirt tucked in at the pep rally earlier. Like tucking this in would make it look any better.”

“True. But I’ll tuck in my shirt all they want if it will put off the Power Ranger costumes a week or two.”

“Yeah, first time I’ve ever been grateful for temperatures over 100.”

“And it was spirit day, so we blended in, at least.” The school had been a maelstrom of blue and gold, and Elijah had a faint hope that it masked the hideous polo they’d been forced to wear.

“Nope, sorry, nothing about having to wear these fucking shirts all day is good. We should start a rebellion. A no-band-shirts-during-school rebellion.”

“If it were more than a few days a year, there would fucking be one. I think Mr. Jackson knows it.”

Dom’s response was lost in the sudden uproar from the stands and the band members paying attention to the game. “Oh look at that,” he said when they quieted again. “We’re losing.”

“Big fucking surprise.”

“Why do we always lose?”

“Who the fuck cares? Is it time to go yet?”

“I wish. I was hoping Jackson would let us crawl on home with our tails between our legs after halftime. Man, was that shitty.”

“Of course it was. It’s the first game. We always suck at the first game.”

“And the second.”

“The third is normally better, though.”

“Yeah, the freshmen have started removing their heads from their asses by then.”

“Get out the Darth Vader March. The Darth Vader March,” Billy ordered over the speakers. He was on the podium, ready to conduct. “First trumpets take it up an octave, if you can.”

“If we can!” Elijah scoffed. Dom inched away from him. “No, no, Dom, stand with your ear right next to the bell.”

“I’ve heard you play before, Elijah, and there is no fucking way!” Elijah laughed and caught the tempo from Billy’s hands as he counted them off.

“Well, that was a fun thirty seconds,” Elijah remarked sarcastically after the song was over. “Kevin!” he yelled. “‘Take it up an octave’ doesn’t mean play like shit!” Everyone around laughed.

“Screw you, Woody!” Kevin shouted back, but he was smiling as well.

“You wish,” Elijah said, not bothering to yell it, but not giving up the last word either.

“He probably does. Have you noticed the way he dresses?” Dom asked.

“Not really,” Elijah told him, which wasn’t exactly true. But Elijah hadn’t noticed anything _wrong_ with the way Kevin dressed.

“He’s very… fashionable,” Dom explained.

Elijah rolled his eyes. “I swear, you think everyone’s fucking looking for a gay shag. Are you sure it’s not that you want one?” Dom glared at him. “Is it time to go now?” He asked after a second, just to be annoying.

“Bored, are you? Oh, I can fix that.” Dom smiled coldly, stood and re-shouldered his drums, and started playing.

Three bars into it, and someone down the bleachers screamed, “Booty Drop!” Eight bars and the rest of the drumline joined in and everyone was dancing, the band, the cheerleaders, the dance team, even some people in the stands.

Elijah gritted his teeth and worked on looking too cool to dance. Elijah couldn’t dance to save his life. It was just one of those things. It was fucking embarrassing. Dom fucking knew how uncomfortable it made him.

He watched Claire twirl about laughing, trying to learn the steps. Liv was behind him, glowering. She hated dancing for her own reasons. Billy and Miranda were showing up the cheerleaders on the track around the field. Orlando was teaching several freshmen clarinets. Elijah frowned. He looked way to fucking graceful.

Elijah suffered through it, pointedly not staring at Orlando. “Bastard,” he accused Dom mildly when the fucktard finished and sat down again.

“You deserved it,” Dom reminded him. Elijah shrugged. “The cheerleaders look pretty good this year, huh?”

“Oh, yeah,” Elijah snorted. “But only because you don’t show at first.” Their cheerleaders had a serious problem with getting pregnant. “Coach Barbie needs to hand out condoms with the pom-poms.”

“Nah, they wouldn’t know where to fucking put them.”

Further speculation was cut off by Mr. Jackson’s voice on the loud speaker. “Okay, guys. The game’s almost over. I don’t think we have to worry about overtime,” he commented dryly. The score was 48 to 10. Ouch. “Now, we won’t have a meeting once we get back to the band hall, just head on home. And don’t worry about homework. The class period after a Thursday game is reserved for studying because you need to pass your classes. We’ll also look at the tape of the show, but I think we all agree that we can do better.”

“We did better than the football team!” Dom bellowed, and the whole band laughed. Several parents watching their kids getting creamed on the field glared over at him.

Mr. Jackson ignored him but didn’t argue. “We’ll play the school song after they do and then go home. And don’t leave the band hall a mess, or you won’t have this freedom again.”

\-----

Elijah sat on the trunk of his junkmobile, waiting for Dom to finish unloading the percussion trailer. He was giving Dom rides while his parents were out of town. And he was taking forfuckingever.

“Elijah! Elijah, Elijah, Elijah!” Orlando was running towards him. “Ihavebeentryingtogetyoualoneallday.You’llneverguesswhathappened.”

“Whoa,” Elijah interrupted. “First of all, I know you didn’t just say that. Second of all, breathe.”

“Right.” Orlando paused for a moment. “I got an 84 on my CALCULUS TEST!” He ended the phrase on a squeal and bounced up and down on his toes. “Can you fucking believe it?”

“That’s great, Orlando,” Elijah congratulated him with a genuine smile. “How’d you find out?”

Orlando was beaming. “I went and asked him after class because he said he had some of them graded, and I couldn’t wait any longer. We’re going to Denny’s to celebrate.” He motioned behind him at Liv, who was following at her own serene pace. “Do you want to come? You worked as hard as I did.” And Elijah couldn’t believe it, but Orlando meant it.

“I can’t, man. I’m taking Dom home, if he ever gets his ass out here.”

“Oh. Well. I guess he could come to,” Orli offered, but it was a strain.

“You so do not fucking mean that. And I have to get home, really.”

“Okay.” Liv arrived finally, and caught his arm as she passed, sweeping him into motion. “Bye, Elijah! See you tomorrow!”

“Bye.”

“Bye!” Dom singsonged inches from his ear, startling him off the car.

“The fuck, man! You scared the shit outta me!”

“Oh, Elijah! You’re such a strong, handsome man!” Dom pretended to swoon onto the spot Elijah’d just vacated. “Take me now!”

Elijah pushed him off toward the passenger side. “Get in the car, you stupid prick. I want to get home.”

“You call this a car?” Dom teased as he climbed in.

“Says the man with the bike.”

“Oh, Elijah, please,” Dom continued in a falsetto. “I’ll do anything you want, just – OW!” Elijah giggled as he put the car in reverse. “That was my nipple, fucker! Operative word ‘was’!”

“You deserved it. And besides, you didn’t need both of them, did you?”

“That fucking hurts.”

“Don’t be a pussy. And quiet,” Elijah admonished as he cut off a truck. “I’m driving.”

Dom sat for a few minutes, completely silent and watching Elijah drive. “Please don’t kill us. I’m too young to die.” Elijah smiled in grim satisfaction at the hint of real fear in his voice. Dom hunkered down in his chair and clutched at the seatbelt.


	6. Chapter 6

Elijah was surrounded by a crowd of giggly, drinking, scantily clad girls, all of whom seemed to want into Elijah’s pants.

He wasn’t sure why. He hadn’t dated anyone in high school. He never encouraged the girls that flocked around him, although he wasn’t above flirting, as a joke. He avoided most of the social events that were ‘mandatory’ for the cool crowd. He was in band.

But despite all this, girls threw themselves at him. Dom said it was because he had mystery, and that he was a challenge. And that having ‘fucking eyes like that’ didn’t hurt either. Elijah wasn’t sure Dom knew what the fuck he was talking about, but did know he wasn’t going to examine it too closely.

He also knew that he was probably the only sober person in the room. On one level, it was sad, but on another, it was fucking hysterical. They seemed to be laughing just because everyone else was, and the attempts at dancing and, in some cases, walking had given Elijah a stitch in his side.

“Here, ‘Lijah. I got you a drink. ‘Sjust… ‘sjust punch. Cuz you’re not drunking. Drunk. Drinking.” She giggled prettily and handed him a plastic cup.

“Thanks.” He eyed it warily and took a small sip, but it didn’t taste of alcohol. He listened to Dom tell another garbled joke. Soon he set the empty cup aside. A blonde snaked an arm around his waist and when she handed him a second drink, he wasn’t aware of where it’d come from.

\-----

Elijah spotted Liv on the back porch and collapsed at her feet after stumbling over. “Elijah?” He looked up at her and almost fell backwards. “Have you been drinking?” It was a stupid question, but she couldn’t believe it. Elijah didn’t drink.

“Just punch.” He answered. Then he yawned.

Liv fought the urge to smack him sober. It probably wouldn’t work. “The punch spiked with Everclear?”

He looked up surprised and then giggled. “Is it? Oops.”

Liv peered at him closer. His face was red and his eyes didn’t seem to be tracking her too well. “How much have you had?”

He tried to think about, and it looked to Liv like a painful process. “Dunno. Two or five. Maybe… maybe…” He thought about it some more. “Dunno.”

“That’s just great. Really great, Elijah.” Sarcasm was obviously too much for his tipsy brain, and he smiled proudly that he’d pleased her. “As soon as Orlando gets back, we’re leaving. You’re going to be so sick.”

“Orli’s here?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” Elijah thought about that for a moment. “The girls, Liv. They wanted my pants. No, no… they wanted IN my pants. In my pants,” he told her with drunken dignity. “Orli’s not like those other girls.” Elijah yawned again. “Mostly… mostly, cuz he’s a guy.”

“That’s very true.” Don’t laugh, don’t laugh, don’t laugh. Liv was going to bust something keeping a straight face.

“I love you, Liv.” He rested his head against her knee and sighed heavily, and she knew he was drunk, but it was so, so cute.

She ran her fingers though his spiky hair. “I love you, too.” Amazing how easy it was to say when she was fairly certain he’d forget it by morning.

Orli appeared in the doorway. “Okay, Liv, you were right. The party blows. Let’s go.” He looked down at Elijah, who was beaming up at him. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s drunk,” Liv explained. “We need to take him home.”

“Why? You should see the people in there. He’s probably one of the soberest.”

Liv stood and tried to pull Elijah up. “Elijah doesn’t drink.”

“I think the fact that he’s unable to stand is working against that statement a little bit.”

“Orli, get your ass over here and help me! And I know it looks bad, but Elijah didn’t get like this on purpose. He’s gonna be pissed as hell tomorrow. Right after he gets over the killer hangover that’s waiting for him.” Orli grabbed an arm and together they managed to get him standing.

“God, how can someone so small be this heavy?” Elijah giggled and almost fell back down again, but Orli stopped him.

“Deadweight. C’mon, let’s get him to the car.” They made it inside the house and down the hall with remarkably few bruises.

“Elijah! There you are!” A pack of blondes stood between them and the door. “We were having so much fun and then you left!”

“Elijah’s not feeling very well,” Liv informed them with as much courtesy as she ever used when talking to people she didn’t like. “We’re taking him home.”

“Elijah’s a big boy and can take care of himself. I’m sure he wants to stay.” Her smile had turned a little hostile and when she moved toward Elijah, Liv dumped Elijah’s weight on Orli and stepped up to stop her. “Back off, Barbie!” she spat. The blonde looked a little taken aback, but quickly recovered.

“I’m not afraid of you, freak. You can’t intimidate me and get whatever you want. Elijah’s staying!”

“Whoa, cat fight,” Orli whispered in Elijah’s ear. Elijah giggled his agreement. Somehow, they were still standing.

“I’m sure you’re wanting him to stay has nothing to do with trying, as Elijah put it, to get into his pants.”

“I have very nice pants,” Elijah told Orli.

“So what if it does?”

“And I’m sure _that_ has nothing to do with why he’s drunk.” Silence greeted that remark. Liv smiled coldly. “You’re in my way.” The girl crossed her arms. “Move please.”

Orli had never seen Liv really angry. Normally, the threat of Liv angry was enough to get the point across. She looked to be reaching full anger, however. Orli hoped the blonde wasn’t too far-gone to realize it.

“Make me.” Oh, shit.

Liv walked up to her and punched her in the eye in a single, graceful move. The blonde yelled and stumbled back up, hand over her face.

Elijah started cheering and overbalanced, almost taking them to the floor, but Orli caught them just in time.

“BITCH!” the blonde screamed.

“Oh, no, doll," And the word was an insult in Liv's mouth. "I am so much worse than that.” Fear finally seemed to overcome drunken bravado and they had a clear path to the door. Between the two of them, they got Elijah out of the house.

“Superpickle!” Elijah called out, waving as they approached Liv’s large, green minivan.

“Superpickle?” Orli asked her.

“I drive a green van. What do you want?”

“You named your van the ‘superpickle’?”

“It just kind of happened. I didn’t hold a ceremony and break a bottle of champagne on it, God.” She tried again to get Elijah through the open door of the van. “Can we focus?”

“Hold on.” Orli climbed in the superpickle. He started to say ‘you push, I’ll pull’ but Elijah climbed in after him and curled up in his lap, which pushed any words Orli had far, far away.

Liv raised her eyebrows, but didn’t comment. She closed their door, got in, and drove away.

It was silence and street lamps for a few minutes before Elijah asked, “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know,” Orli whispered back.

“That’s okay. This is the superpickle. Everything’s okay in the superpickle.” It sounded good to Orli. Liv took a sharp turn and Orli’s arm went around Elijah’s waist to steady him.

Elijah looked up from where his head was resting on Orli’s shoulder. His eyes focused lazily on Orli’s lips. “I’d kiss you,” Elijah whispered, “But you don’t like me very much,” he finished sadly. Before Orli could think of a response to _that_ , Elijah’s eyes slid shut and his entire body went limp, held in place by the arm still around him.

“Passed out,” Liv commented softly. He looked up and saw her eyes in the rearview mirror.

Orli groaned in disbelief. This had too many angles of fucked up to count. “Well.” He said finally. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“I don’t think Elijah did, either.”

“I don’t know whether to be flattered or to be pissed off that all those hateful things he’s said about me now turn out to be hypocritical as well.”

Liv shook her head. “He didn’t know he being hypocritical, Orli. You have to understand you are what you’re making fun of to realize you’re hypocritical. Elijah’s never admitted to himself that he’s gay.”

“But you knew?”

“Suspected. But we dated quite a while. I probably know him better than anyone else.”

“What am I supposed to do now?”

Liv shook her head as they pulled into the driveway of her house. “You’ll have to figure that one out with Elijah.”

\-----

Cool hands held him, gentle against his fevered skin, and he tried in vain to empty his stomach again. There was nothing left. He felt scraped raw and empty. He was never fucking drinking again. Why had he even done it this time?

He wasn’t sure where he was, but the cool hands gently massaged his face and neck as he collapsed back to the floor, and he felt safe enough to fall deep back asleep.

\-----

They let Elijah sleep for a long time. It was mid afternoon when Liv sent Orli with a light breakfast, a large water, and a portable pharmacy. “He’s not going to want to see me,” Orli protested. “Tough,” she’d said, and pushed Orli out of the kitchen.

Elijah was already awake, though. Orli could hear his voice through the door.

“Are you sure you’re alright? I don’t know how my phone got turned off.” There was a pause. “Yeah, the party was crazy, I ended up crashing at Liv’s.” He wondered who Elijah’s talking to and realized Elijah must have a family, although he hadn’t thought about it before. “I’ll be leaving soon. I’m going to stop at the store on the way home, do you want anything special?” Orli couldn’t remember if he’s heard Elijah talk about parents, but he didn’t think so. “I love you, too, Mom. Bye.”

Orli waited a second before knocking and entering. “Good morning.” He set the tray down in front of Elijah and sat down himself.

Elijah looked faintly confused to see him, but didn’t say anything. He gulped down some water and started to search through the pill bottles. “What was I drinking last night?” he asked finally in a small voice.

“Punch and Everclear.”

Elijah grimaced. “I wasn’t going to drink.”

“You were already drunk when you found Liv, but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t your idea.”

“I don’t remember.” He popped several pills in his mouth and then started on the food. He wasn’t sure if his stomach was ready for it, but aspirin on an empty stomach wasn’t a good idea either.

“Yeah, you were out of it.”

“I didn’t do anything stupid, did it?”

“Not excessively. You were very giggly. You told me you had nice pants.”

“Well, that’s just the truth.”

Orli laughed. “You’re gonna regret missing this, though. One girl at the party didn’t want you to leave, and Liv punched her.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. She’s going to have a horrible black eye. That was pretty much it. We left and you had a heartfelt reunion with the superpickle.” Elijah wasn’t sure what that meant, but Orli kept a straight face, so he decided to skip it. Fuck, he deserved any teasing coming his way.

\------

Liv took Orli home after they’d dropped Elijah off at his car. “Did you talk about it?” Liv asked.

“No. He doesn’t remember.” Liv frowned. “Was that wrong?”

“I don’t know. This time, I just don’t know.”

Orli sighed. “Yeah. Me neither.”


	7. Chapter 7

A week and a half went by, and outside everything was the same, but inside… inside Orli was wearing himself raw.

His thoughts looped around that night, and he watched Elijah constantly, looking for some flicker of memory or change to break through, but nothing’s different. Nothing’s different about Elijah. Orli knew, but Elijah didn’t know he knew, and Elijah might not have even known what Orli knew, Lord only knows, and he needed a flow chart in the worst way.

Watching Elijah taught Orli one thing: he’s attracted to Elijah. He’s been going three years on a snap, known-you-for-two-minutes judgment, and hadn’t looked again. Until now. And now Orli liked what he saw. Which was a huge fucking understatement, because Elijah’s body pressed against him had become the main theme of his jerking material.

\-----

Orlando rapped his knuckles against the door a second time, louder. He stared at the handsome wood door in front of him, dense and imposing, unlike the watery glass that decorate most of the houses in this neighborhood.

He knew this was Elijah’s house. Elijah’s junky car was parked out front. The same car that had been conspicuously absent from it’s home in the school parking lot the last three days. No one knew where Elijah was. Orli was at his house and didn’t know, and if someone didn’t answer soon, he was going to have to leave. He bit his lip at the thought.

In a second, Orlando was saved from having to make that decision, Elijah unlocking and opening the door enough to peek out. “Orlando?” The door opened wider, revealing Elijah in a t-shirt and jeans, barefoot. “What are you doing here?”

Orli held his calculus book against his chest like a shield and had to swallow down sharp shards of lust before answering. “We have a test on Friday,” he said, which didn’t exactly answer the question, but Orli thought he deserved points for coherence.

“Oh. You should’ve called. I’ll be back at school tomorrow.”

“I don’t know your number.”

“But you know my address?” Elijah smirked when Orli blushed. “You’re worried about me,” he teased.

“I am, I admit it!” Orli played along. “What if you never came back? I would have to listen to Kevin crack that high note the rest of the semester.”

Elijah laughed at Orli’s melodramatic shudder. “Freak. And you’d have failed calculus.”

“Can’t argue with that. Especially with a test this week.” Orli realized he was still standing on the porch. “But if you’re, um, going to be at school tomorrow, then we can just study then…” Elijah stared at him until waiting for a response was beyond awkward, and Orli had to repress an urge to wave his hand in front of Elijah’s face.

“No,” Elijah answered suddenly, startling Orli. “We can study some now. Come in.” Orli followed Elijah inside. “I need the assignments I missed anyway.”

Elijah paused and quietly shut a door before leading Orli into the kitchen. “My mom’s asleep,” he explained. “Sit down. I just have to finish dinner.”

Orlando sat down at a small table in the kitchen. “You cook?”

“Yeah. Very well, if I do say so myself. Not that I spread that around,” he added, sparing Orlando a glance from where he was chopping green things.

“Of course not. It would damage that rough, masculine image you’ve got going,” Orli agreed, smirking and sarcastic.

“Kitchen rule number two: Don’t insult the man with the sharp knife.”

“Right. So what’s for dinner?”

“[Green chile stew](http://often-adamanta.livejournal.com/161777.html).” Elijah dropped the pieces of whatever-it-was into a pot on the stove and stirred it with a wooden spoon.

“Sounds good.”

“It is.”

“So what’s rule number one?” Elijah shot a confused look at him before adding some pepper.

“You said that was rule number two. What’s number one?”

“Wash your hands.”

“Oh.” And this, Orli thought, is a prime example of why he came across as stupid most of the time.

Elijah clamped the lid down over the pot. “Done. Let’s study.”

\-----

“Why doesn’t it make this much sense when Mr. Head explains it to us?” Orli asked sadly as they finished working through the last section of the chapter. “If it did, I could pass without help,” he added, looking cheerful at the thought.

Elijah ignored the faint coil of hurt that Orli still didn’t want his help, the way he’d been ignoring how seamlessly Orlando fit into his home, stretched out and relaxed. “It’s because he speaks snob. Why speak in a way others can understand when you can be a prick?”

Orli laughed and missed the muffled noise that came from behind the shut door, but Elijah was up instantly and opened the door. “Mom?” Orli heard him call out softly but not the answer. “Yeah, it’s Orlando.” Elijah flipped the lights on but Orli couldn’t see in from this angle. “You remember. Liv’s friend. The one I’m tutoring in math.” Orli couldn’t stop the flare of disappointment at that introduction. “Are you hungry? Dinner should be ready. No, you don’t have to get up. Do you need help?” But Elijah had already disappeared into the room without waiting for an answer.

Orli thought about the telephone conversation he’d heard, the way Elijah had cooked dinner, how he never mentioned her, his protective, concerned attitude. Alarms went off in his head.

Orli smiled when they walked out together, but it hardened as Elijah settled her down at the table and Orli was able to look at her properly. She was pale and thin and obviously sick. There was darkness about her eyes, deep purple like bruises, and when Orli shook her hand, it trembled and felt fragile so that he was afraid of breaking her with his touch.

Her smile, when she looked at him, was broad and bright, chasing away some of the shadows of illness. “Orlando, welcome. I’m Elijah’s mom, Deborah.”

“Hi. It’s nice to meet you.” Orlando could see the tension in Elijah’s body as he put tortillas into the broiler to warm up.

“How is calculus going?” Deborah asked politely, noticing the eyes following her son.

“We have a test on Friday,” Orlando told her with a look of disgust. “But I’m already doing better than I thought. I passed the last test,” and couldn’t contain his delight at this triumph, “thanks to Elijah. He really is a great teacher, ma’am. I failed every quiz before he started helping me.”

“I think he’s amazing, of course, but it’s always nice to hear that others think the same. Although, it looks like he’s forgotten his manners again. Elijah, didn’t you offer your guest a drink?” Elijah shook his head and pulled two bowls out of a cabinet. “Orlando, please, won’t you stay for dinner? We’d love to have you.”

Orlando glanced at Elijah, but he merely waited to see if he’d need a third bowl. “Yes, thank you.”

They chatted and giggled through dinner, Elijah relaxing as the meal went on. Orli noticed that although he and Elijah both had second helpings, Deborah ate little more than half of her first one.

\-----

They were sitting on Elijah’s front step, waiting for Orli’s mom to pick him up. It was cooler than it’d been all day, but still hot enough to make both boys feel sticky. Orli waited patiently, knowing they were out here for Elijah to say whatever it is he needed to.

“You didn’t have to stay,” Elijah says finally. “If you didn’t want to, I mean. I don’t want you to feel like you have to or, you know, something.”

“I did want to,” Orli replied sincerely. “That soup smelled as good as it tasted. And I never go home if I can avoid it. And I don’t pity you, Elijah, if that’s what you’re afraid of.” Elijah didn’t argue, and Orli decided that he’d guessed right.

“It’s cancer,” Elijah spat out suddenly, with more anger than Orli’s ever heard from him before.

“They can help with that, though, right? There’s medicine… and doctors…” and Orli stumbled to a halt because he didn’t know anything about it.

“Not… Not with… The doctors can’t… And…” Elijah stopped and collected himself. “This can’t be helped. She’s dying.” The words were dug up unwillingly, tainted and twisted, and Orli took them without question so that Elijah didn’t have to touch them more than he already had.

In the silence that followed, Orli thought of his girly, melodramatic behavior since the party and wanted to laugh at himself. “Do you remember the night of Dom’s party?”

“I remember arriving and then later throwing up like a bitch. Everything in between is a blur.”

“Ah.” Nope, it was going to take more eloquence than that. “You said that I didn’t like you very much. And, well, I just wanted you to know, that’s not true. In fact, I don’t know how you managed to act like such a bastard and convince everyone not to like you, because you’re one of the most beautiful people I know.” And, shit, beautiful hadn’t been what he’d meant to say.

He was halfway expecting a fist to the face, which is what saying something like that at the start of the year would have gotten him, but all he received was the same guarded look Elijah’d turned on him when deciding whether or not to let him in the house.

“You can come over whenever. You make her laugh,” Elijah offered, and Orli nodded seriously. Orli knew that it was Elijah’s way of returning the unexpected compliment.

His mom pulled up, and Orli stood to leave. “Thanks, Orlando.”

“No, thank you. For dinner, and studying, and everything.” He wanted to say ‘for trusting me,’ but he’d already pushed his luck with the beautiful thing, and they were having a moment, dammit. He wasn’t going to blow it.

“See you in band tomorrow!” he called when he reached the car. Elijah waved as they drove off.


	8. Chapter 8

_taptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptappitytaptaptaptap **SMACK**_

“Ow, dammit, that hurt!” Dom rubbed his cheek, drumstick still in his hand. He picked up the pen Elijah’d hit him with and chunked it back.

“If you don’t stop the fucking tapping, my fucking ears are going to bleed.”

“Well, I need to get this section memorized.”

“And I need to get this makeup work done. But I can’t when you’re drilling holes into my head with sound.”

“I can do my homework when you practice,” Dom pointed out.

“First, you don’t really do homework, as far as I can tell. Second, when I practice my instrument, it has melody and tone and isn’t made up of a zillion freakin’ tapping noises.”

“So.”

“So? Shit, Dom. And you wonder why I win all the arguments?”

“Shut up! How do you have makeup homework, anyway? You haven’t been to class yet.”

“I got the notes I missed from Orlando.”

Dom twirled one of his sticks between his fingers. “He’s not here yet.”

Elijah ignored him and moved on to the next problem.

“Bloomie’s not here yet.” Dom poked Elijah in the ear with a stick. Elijah batted it away and growled softly in irritation. “You making house calls now?”

“No,” Elijah said shortly.

“Well, it’s not like you’d let him come over to your house.” Elijah shifted uncomfortably and stuck the end of the pen in his mouth. “No way, Elijah. I know you did not fucking invite him to your house.”

“You’re right, I didn’t,” Elijah confirmed with a scowl. “He just… showed up yesterday.”

“Damn. Doesn’t he know that’s third on the list of ways-to-get-killed? Right after jumping off a tall building.” Dom snickered. “Oh man, he’s not late today because you fucking killed him, is he?”

“No, I didn’t kill him. Fucktard.”

“Oh,” Dom sighed, sounding vaguely disappointed. “Did you let him meet your mom?”

“Yes.”

“How’d that go?”

“He didn’t freak out or anything, if that’s what you mean.”

“Nope.”

“What?” Elijah snapped, exasperated.

“That’s not what I mean.”

“Then what’d you mean?”

“Fuck if I know. I can’t believe you let him in your house.”

Elijah’s head was starting to spin. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t let me or Liv come over for, like, months, and we knew her before.”

“That had nothing to do with you and you know it. The chemo made Mom look like shit, and she didn’t like company.” Dom just stared. Elijah decided this whole conversation was pissing him off. “What is going on with you? Are you _jealous_?”

“Want to confess anything you think I’d be jealous of?” Elijah glared a few seconds before looking back down at his paper, dismissing Dom and his question.

Dom picked up his stuff, scattered about on the floor. “I’m not jealous, by the way. You can get your ass fucked by whoever you want.” He opened the door and left, cursing at Orli, who happened to walk by. Elijah was glad the practice rooms were sound proof.

“Seen Liv?” Orli asked him quietly, but the words really meant, ‘Anything I can do?’

Elijah shook his head to both questions. Orli smiled and walked on.

Fuck. Conversations with Orli now had understandable subtexts and he’d just had an actual fight with Dom. Which were nothing like the mock fights they had all the time. No one had yelled, not once.

Fuck.

\-----

Elijah tore off another strip of duck tape, which tried very hard to stick to him more than what he needed it to stick to, namely his car. One of the headlights was falling off again. This was his third attempt to stick it back on because the heat kept melting the glue. It was really fucking annoying. Wasn’t duck tape supposed to be the miracle, works-on-anything answer?

“Lij, man, your car sucks ass.” Elijah turned and found himself facing Dom’s most disgusting pair of ripped jeans. “I mean, you’re actually using tape to hold it together. Tape. On your car. I knew you were in trouble when the highest setting on the AC went out, but this is getting ridiculous. You do realize that there’s a wire hanger holding the back window up and-”

Dom landed with a whoosh, flat on his back, courtesy of a sneak attack from Elijah. “The fuck, man?” Elijah duck taped his ankles together. “What the fuck are you doing? Help! I’m being attacked! Attacked! Fuck. RAPE!”

A flute player walked by and giggled but kept going, leaving Dom to his fate. Jokes and scenes like this were a common occurrence. Elijah laughed and twisted Dom’s hands around his back, and Dom started struggling in earnest. Elijah held him tight, and the anger Dom had been carrying all day found a welcome outlet.

“Get your fucking hands off me, you fucking cocksucker!” Dom’s voice was a low snarl, malicious. Elijah was shocked still, duck tape paused midtwist around Dom’s wrists. “You can’t fucking tie me up and assrape me, faggot! I’m not some fucking whore! I’m not Bloomie!”

Dom ran out of words and his breathing is harsh in the resulting silence. Elijah stood over him, and the anger and retaliation he expected, craved, was nowhere to be found. Elijah’s eyes were cold and distant, and a shiver ran through Dom despite the hot, dark asphalt beneath him and his physical exertion.

“If you ever talk to me like that again, I’ll have to kill you,” Elijah told him politely, which was scary as fuck because Elijah was never polite, not to Dom. He dragged Dom out of the way of his car, got in and drove off.

“Fuck,” Dom whispered to himself. He was still tied up.

\-----

Elijah’s mom was watching tv when he got home. He slammed the door and paced around the house several times before she intervened. “Elijah? What’s wrong?”

He sighed and drained the anger away. It wouldn’t have stayed that long anyway, and he never talked to his mom while angry. He opened his mouth to tell her what had happened, but closed it again when he realized he didn’t want to.

Damn. That meant he was wrong.

He sighed again, pulled out his cell phone, and dialed Billy’s number. “Listen, Billy…

 _…it’s Dom. He’s still not back. Will you go check on him? Mrs. Howell won’t let me leave class anymore.’ Billy crumpled up Elijah's note and asked for a bathroom pass. He tossed the paper in the trash on the way out._

 _Dom couldn’t have gotten into too much trouble because the halls were silent, Billy’s footsteps echoing. Dom’s brand of trouble was always noisy and obnoxious and in front of a crowd. Much like Dom._

 _Billy wandered into the bathroom, partly because that’s where he’d said he was going and partly because he had to start looking for Dom somewhere. He stopped short in the doorway at the sight of Dom, hunkered over the sink and spitting out blood._

 _“Dom, shit! What happened?” Dom jumped at the voice and lost his grip on the sink, but Billy caught him before he fell. “Who did this?”_

 _“Nobody, Billy, I’m fine. Never fucking better.” Blood dripped from his nose, tinted his lips dark red. He tried to push Billy away but only succeeded in losing his balance again. “I just fell.”_

 _“Yeah. Fell. Repeatedly onto a fist. So who caught you?”_

 _“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”_

 _“Fine. Let’s go see Mr. Alderson. I’m sure he’ll have no problem understanding me.”_

 _“No. Billy, I’m serious. I fell. I can’t go to the principal. Please.”_

 _Billy considered him. “Alright. Tell me what happened. The truth, Dom, or I swear I’m going straight to his office. And don’t lie,” Billy added when Dom opened his mouth again, a little too willing. “I can always tell with you.” He could._

 _Dom knew it, too. “Fine.” Dom stared at their shoes, refusing to meet Billy’s eyes. “I was in here making out with someone. A friend… not mine, obviously… walked in and saw us. He blamed it on me.” Billy wondered if Dom realized he’d let the pronoun slip. “They beat me up. And I don’t want to repeat that ever fucking again.”_

 _Billy considered this, considered Dom for a while. “Let’s get you to the Nurse, then. But Dom, I don’t think anyone is going to believe you fell.”_

 _Dom laughed, then hissed in pain and Billy worried about broken ribs. “They will.” Billy was later horrified to learn that everyone accepted Dom’s pitiful excuse of a story. Even Elijah._

 _“What is it about you, Dom?…_

…How do you always get yourself into these messes?” Billy knelt down with the scissors and started to cut through the tape on Dom’s wrists.

“Luck?”

“Stupidity?”

“Can you make fun of me after I’m untied? I’d like to be able to fucking respond.”

“You want to tell me what you did to piss Elijah off?”

“No.”

“You going to anyway? I could just leave you tied up instead.” It was an empty threat, though, because Billy was already done with his wrists. Dom took the scissors and started on his ankles. “Dom…”

“I might’ve said something.”

“Might’ve?”

“Yeah.”

“You might’ve said something that made Elijah leave you in the parking lot tied up with duck tape.”

“It might’ve been bad,” Dom admitted. He handed the scissors back to Billy and wiped the sweat from his eyes. “I was trying to hurt him. I really shouldn’t have said it.”

Billy nodded. “Do you need a ride home?”

“If you don’t mind.” Dom was relieved at the change of subject. Billy could have pushed it further. Dom couldn’t lie to him.

“Let’s go.” They climbed into Billy’s truck. “Elijah knew this was my truck when he left, Dom. He knew I’d find you. Eventually.”

Dom nodded and stretched his arms. He knew Elijah wouldn’t have left him there to rot.

“Are you going to fix it?”

“Yeah.” Dom shuddered at the country music but didn’t turn it off. There was a chance Billy’d sing along.

“Without anyone else getting tied up?”

“Right.” Dom leaned against the window and watched Billy smile out of the corner of his eye.


	9. Chapter 9

The sky began to mist as the buses pulled into the parking lot, their load of students eerily quiet. The tradition of silence for a few minutes leaving and arriving, ingeniously named Silent Bus, was one that everyone honored.

Claire turned to him from her seat across the isle, pale and frowning. She pointed at the window.

Elijah smiled. “The rain’s good.” He spoke quietly, but knew everyone could hear, hoping to relieve all the freshmen at once.

Claire gave him a doubtful look, mirroring several other faces.

“No, seriously. Ask any upperclassman. We kick ass in the rain. I bet this will be our best show yet.”

“It’s true, guys,” the saxophone section leader added. “We’re gonna blow ‘em away.” There was a moment of murmuring before he reminded everyone that it was still Silent Bus.

Elijah slid a finger under the uncomfortable plastic strap of his bucket hat and checked his gauntlets, pleased at the intensity that had taken over the bus.

Game on.

\-----

They marched onto the damp field to the beat of a single snare. Billy and Miranda led them, dressed in 1920s costumes to match the show, a suit and skewed hat for Billy, a flapper dress for Miranda.

One of the colorguard guys, costume similar to Billy’s, stopped to wish Miranda luck, only to be chased away by Billy, threatening the man flirting with ‘his girl.’

Technically, the judging hadn’t started, but the show certainly had. Everyone knew the judges and audience were watching, could feel it like a weight in their stomach and a hollow in their chest. Everyone stepped and breathed in time to the snare as they fell into their first set, familiar from hours of practice.

“Drum Majors! Is your band ready?” the speakers boomed, settling the last of the crowd into silence and causing pulses to tick up another notch across the field.

Billy and Miranda made a show of looking around. He whispered something into her ear, slung his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. She giggled and nodded. Then they stepped forward, their answer in the form of a small curtsy from Miranda and a rakish nod from Billy, who removed his hat.

“Then take the field in three-A competition!” Billy flipped the hat back on and stepped toward the podium at the baseline on the 50 yard line. Miranda jogged off toward the backfield podium, turning several times to wave at Billy.

Billy climbed the podium and, at that moment, had every eye in the stadium on him. He made a show of fishing out his baton, winked at a field judge who was speaking low into a recorder beneath him, and counted off. On four, the entire field breathed in. A beat later and a wall of sound hit him.

It was a powerful, queasy feeling, directing the band. He heard the audience recognize the main theme from _Chicago_ with a cheer, and then he was in the music, in the show, smiling like a maniac. He didn’t even hear the applause when the entire band turned around and faced Miranda for the next two sets before turning again.

Miranda was on the main podium for the ballad, Billy running to several spots on the field to conduct duets that weren’t facing her. He took over again for the closer.

The last ten sets were still unlearned, so there was stillness on the field, but right at that moment the warm mist grew slightly stronger and seemed to give everyone the endurance to throw the last lines past the judges and stands, drenching the air with music as well.

The band marched off again to a single snare, surprisingly efficient as they hadn’t practiced ahead of time. Miranda and Billy followed after bowing a farewell to the judges, arms around each other as they left, the show going on until the gates closed behind them.

The band rushed back to the buses to change, and when they were all in, cheering and smiling, thunder cracked and it started pouring, congratulating them.

\-----

There were three bands yet to perform when Orlando found Elijah in the stands, sharing his umbrella against the sky, which was misting again. Elijah ignored him. He wasn’t much in the mood for talking, the constant gray weather and the need to avoid Dom making what would have been a normally wonderful day sour.

“I just had an interesting conversation with Dom,” Orlando told him as they watched another band march onto the field.

That announcement deserved some attention. Dom didn’t really talk to Orli. Nor Orli talk to Dom, Elijah realized, although he’d never thought about it from that perspective. “A conversation?”

“Yes, actually. He believed he owed me an apology,” Orli mused. “He didn’t say what it was for specifically, but I couldn’t argue that he owed me an apology in general.”

“He meant it?” This was not something he’d expected from Dom.

“Supposedly. Billy even vouched for him.”

“Did you accept?”

“I told him I’d accept in a week or two, when I believed he was serious, Billy or not. I can’t stop thinking that it’s some kind of elaborate joke. Although I don’t know how.” Orlando paused as the sound on the field grew and continued in the next lull. “I left Billy explaining to him why we’re in the 3A category when we’re a 5A school.”

“It’s based on the band size, not school size.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Orli protested with a laugh, glad that the frown had left Elijah’s face. “We did good today, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Good enough for the judges?”

“I don’t know. It’s very political, sometimes, although Mr. Jackson doesn’t like to admit it.”

Orli nodded. “Dom thinks you’re avoiding him.”

“Hmm.” Elijah didn’t so much as blink at the sudden subject change.

“Are you?” Orli asked, although Elijah couldn’t think why he would care.

“A little.”

“Is that why you’re sitting all the way up here?”

“No. If I wanted to avoid Dom, I’d just stay around Liv. I came up here to avoid everyone.” Elijah smiled when he said it, though, to let Orli know he didn’t mean for him to leave.

“Oh. Why?”

“Didn’t feel like dealing with anyone.”

Liv climbed up the slippery metal steps to join them, scooting close to Orli to share warmth and the umbrella.

“I’m cold,” she whined at them. “And my butt’s wet from these stupid seats.” Elijah snickered. “Shut up! It’s not funny.”

“Yeah, it is,” Orli disagreed, not bothering to hide a smile.

She smacked the back of his head. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

Orli tilted the umbrella so that it was no longer covering her, unintentionally showering Elijah.

“Gah!” Elijah twisted away from the cold water and into Orli’s side.

“Crap, sorry!” Orli fixed the umbrella and tried to brush off the water that Elijah’s shirt had already absorbed.

“Orlando.” Elijah grabbed his wrist. “It’s fine. I was already wet.” He held on a beat too long and then jerked his hand away.

Orli suppressed a shiver at the contrast of cold rain and warm skin.

They all watched the field for a minute. “You guys are no fun. I’m going to go help Miranda get dressed for the award thingy.” Liv slid back down the bleachers.

Elijah and Orli just sat there, shoulders pressed together. The last band marched onto the field.

“Dom’s climbing up here.” Orli pointed out. “You want me to go?”

He would have, before the fight. He’d tried to keep them apart. Elijah didn’t want to now, although he couldn’t decide if it was fear of another fight with Dom or if he was trying to make a point. “No.”

“Okay.”

Dom sat on the row in front of them, facing Elijah, who was tearing a candy wrapper into tiny pieces. They sat without speaking for several minutes, Orli wondering at what had happened between them. Elijah and Dom never shut up when they were together.

“I,” Dom declared, “am a complete bastard.”

Elijah’s hands stilled, but he didn’t say anything.

“No, no. Don’t try and argue. I know when I’ve been an ass, and I’ve been an ass. And when I’ve been an ass, I admit to my assness.”

Orli wasn’t sure how this was an apology, but the corner of Elijah’s mouth that Orli could see was inching up in a smile.

“Such is the extent of my assery that I know it is probably beyond repair, but I ask your forgiveness anyway. Especially because everyone else is so fucking boring. And I might just be done with it and kill myself if I have to spend more time with any freshman. They are so fucking irritating. Not,” Dom concluded, “that I didn’t bring all recent irritation, boredom and other general unpleasantness down on myself.”

“No shit.”

“You’re right! I’m not worthy. But I have no other option than to try.”

Elijah made a show of considering the request.

“He might have earned it,” Orlando commented, just because he knew Dom wouldn’t like it. “It was the least amount of cussing I’ve ever heard from him. And he did use words I wouldn’t have expected him to know, with them having more than two syllables.”

“That’s true. But Dom was right when he said he was an ass.” Elijah was enjoying this.

“I didn’t say I was an ass! I said I’d _been_ an ass! There’s a big fucking difference.”

“Are you arguing?”

“No. I’m an ass.”

“Nah,” Elijah corrected, really smiling now. “You’re a fucktard.”

Dom looked relieved. “Good. I can handle that. Does that mean you’re going to stop pouting now?”

“I wasn’t pouting!”

“Oh. Right. Brooding then. And it in no way reminded anyone of a little girl. Not one bit.”

Elijah kicked Dom in the shoulder, leaving a streak of mud, but Dom just beamed at him.

“C’mon. Let’s find the best spot to taunt the other bands. It’s almost time for the awards.”

Orli shook his head in disgust, hiding his relief as Elijah brightened up. “You guys are so weird.” He went to find Liv, taking his umbrella with him.

Later, Orli swore he could hear Elijah’s voice in the cheering when their band was awarded third in its category.


	10. Chapter 10

“I know this probably isn’t what you meant by ‘come over whenever’,” Orlando began as Elijah opened the door, “But I really need a reason to not be home right now. If it’s a bad time, which I’m sure it is, I don’t even know why I did this, I’ll just-”

“Orlando.”

“-wander around, enjoy the stifling heat, do anything but what I’m doing right now-”

“Orlando.”

“-which is, of course, bothering you when you have much more important things to be doing and-”

“Hey! Shut up.” Elijah waited in the sudden quiet to make sure Orlando was _breathing_. “Come in.”

“Are you sure? I hate to do this, I’m so sorry, but my uncle’s in town-”

“Orlando,” Elijah interrupted again. “Get in here.”

“Okay. Um. Thanks.” Orli shut the door behind him. “My uncle-”

“You don’t have to tell me. I mean, you can, but you don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind. We just don’t get along. My uncle and I. Like my dad doesn’t think I’m smart enough, my uncle doesn’t think I’m manly enough, or something, and he’s always talking about what a girl I am. Someone at church this morning told him I was gay, and I couldn’t be around him for another second, he was quoting verses at me and telling me I was going to hell and– yeah.” He blushed. “I’m gonna stop talking now.” Orli’s eyes refused to leave a spot on the carpet.

Elijah wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say to that. “Nice tie.”

Orli’s head jerked up, but Elijah was grinning at him. “Shut up,” he answered and, deciding that he wasn’t about to be kicked out, dropped his backpack to the floor. The tie followed, and he took off his shoes for good measure. He wasn’t sure how clean they were.

“You’re okay, though, right?” Elijah asked.

Orlando smiled tightly. “Fine.”

They walked into the kitchen, where Deborah was putting an empty mug next to the sink. “Who was at the – oh, hello, Orlando. It’s good to see you again.”

“Thank you, ma’am. You, too.”

“Do you want another cup, Mom?” Elijah asked, directing her attention away from Orlando, who was squirming a little.

“No, thank you, dear. I’m going to go lay down for a while. Wake me up for dinner, alright?”

“Okay.” Deborah kissed Elijah on the cheek and wandered toward her room.

“Orlando? Would you like a drink?” Elijah offered loudly, and they heard Deborah laugh before her door snicked shut.

“I’m okay. Not thirsty, anyway.”

“Okay.” They looked at each other. “Probably a good thing. I think all we have is milk and decaffeinated herbal tea.” Elijah wrinkled his nose in disgust at the last one.

“Yeah,” Orli smiled.

They stood there.

Elijah was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. He was still in his pajamas, while Orli was wearing nice clothes, which shouldn’t have mattered, but it _did_ for some reason. He was being silly. Orlando had seen him look much worse. Fuck, the entire band had seen him look much worse.

This was definitely becoming an Awkward Moment. Elijah didn’t know how to fix it, either. He and Orli never spent anytime together outside of band and calculus. Orlando was squirming again, no doubt feeling just as stupid as Elijah, because this was definitely fucking stupid, and Elijah needed to say right the fuck now.

“So, um,” Elijah started, just as Orli said, “Sorry, really.” They both laughed, and even though Elijah’s stomach still felt a little coiled, the Awkwardness left.

“What church do you go to?” Elijah asked, leading Orli into the living room. Elijah’s laptop was sprawled on the couch. “I was writing an English paper,” he explained, moving it.

“You can keep working on it. I don’t wanna mess you up,” Orli said without thinking, then hid his blush by sitting in the spot Elijah cleared off.

Elijah sat on the other end. “No, I want a distraction. You have perfect timing,” he added, smiling. “I try to put off English as long as possible. I hate it.”

Orli shrugged. “I like the discussions. Like, oh man, the other day Evan asked Ms. Jordan what castration meant. She turned so red. Then he freaked out when she told him. I almost busted something I laughed so hard.” He chuckled at the memory. “Sorry, I guess you had to be there,” he apologized when he noticed Elijah wasn’t laughing.

“Sure,” Elijah responded automatically, not really listening, and not imagining what Orlando’s skin would feel like. Especially not beneath the jaw.

“Mormon.” Orli said into the quiet eventually.

“What?”

“My family’s Mormon.”

“Oh,” Elijah said, remembering the question. “I don’t know anything about that.”

Orli laughed. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not interesting at all.”

“Are you one, too? Mormonist?”

“Mormonist?” Orli repeated, amused.

“Or—whatever. I said I didn’t know anything!” Elijah huffed as Orli giggled at him.

“That was precious.”

“I’m not precious.”

“I didn’t say you were. Although, you are.”

“I am not.”

Orli laughed harder the more Elijah argued, until Elijah was forced to glare at him in silence.

Orli tried very hard to get his giggling under control. “No, precious, I’m not a ‘Mormonist’.”

Elijah ignored the form of address. “You’re not?”

“No. I was, when I was younger. And then I found out I was gay and that everyone was supposed to hate me. It’s funny, finding out I was gay didn’t affect my beliefs, but the reactions of all those people I trusted, and loved, that did. If there’s a god out there, he’s not in religion. And I don’t think that he has much to do with me.”

“I never really thought about religion or god when I was growing up. Now I’d have to say that even if there was one, it’s not someone I want anything to do with.”

“Exactly. I don’t even think about god anymore, unless I’m trying to get out of going to church. Which, unfortunately, doesn’t happen very often. My father keeps hoping to ‘save’ me. I keep hoping he’ll, I don’t know, accept me for who I am.”

“My father died when I was little.”

“I’m sorry.”

Elijah shrugged. “I don’t even remember him, really. It seems strange, but I’ve always reacted to it more like a fact than anything else. My eyes are blue. I was born in January. My father’s dead.” Elijah was silent for a moment. “I used to wonder if there was something wrong with me, if that meant I was a horrible person.”

“You’re not horrible. You don’t still think that, do you?”

“I don’t really have time to worry about myself now.” Elijah shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

“I don’t know why I told you all that stuff either.” Silence descended, but this time there was no trace of Awkwardness. “You should write your paper,” Orli reminded Elijah.

Elijah made a face but picked up the laptop off the floor. Orli went and got his Government textbook, and they settled down to work.

\-----

“You can stay if you want. So you don’t have to see your uncle. We have a spare bedroom.” Elijah, for reasons he didn’t look to closely at, was reluctant for Orli to go.

“No, I have to get the car home, and, uh, they’d probably get the wrong idea if I spent the night over here.”

“Oh.” Elijah blushed.

“Besides, I’ll have to face him again at some point.”

Orli looked so distressed that Elijah reached out and touched him on the shoulder for comfort. Orli’s shirt was silky, warm beneath his fingers. He didn’t even think it was odd until he focused on his hand resting on Orli’s shoulder, fingers pale against the fabric muted by dark and streetlight, and he realized what he was doing. He jerked his hand back.

“See ya tomorrow,” he said, as if nothing had happened.

“Yeah,” Orli agreed, grinning soft and shy, an expression Elijah had never seen before.

Orli drove off, and Elijah went back inside, decidedly confused and disturbed.


	11. Chapter 11

“You know what you need?”

“More hot glue?” Ribbons, glitter, glue, paper and other crafty things were spread out on the table that couldn’t be seen beneath the blue, gold and silver tangled mess. Orlando wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten roped into helping Liv make [mums](http://www.mumsandgarters.com/). He was not, despite the gayness, remotely able to craft.

“You need to get laid.”

Orli’s first reaction to that was choking, but as this was the fifth time the topic had come up this week, he merely rolled his eyes. “It’s a distinct possibility.”

“With Elijah.”

“I heard you the first eleven times.”

“Didn’t we talk about Elijah letting you into his house? We talked about Elijah letting you into his house.”

“Yes. It’s the miracle of the century—I think that was the conclusion.”

“You should kiss him.”

“And why,” Orlando asked as he attempted to attach another sticker, “would that be even remotely a good idea?”

She flashed a triumphant smile at him. It was the first time he’d asked instead of shooting her down immediately. Obviously, she saw this as a sign of cracking. Orli intended to hold his ground, but maybe letting her ramble about it now would shut her up in the long run.

“Because right now, you’re NOT kissing.”

“That’s because right now I’m engaged in a rather epic battle with tape.” His right hand had been rendered useless. “I think it’s winning.”

“Not right now, idiot, I mean, now like kinda now.”

“Can we skip ahead to the part where you make sense?”

“You’re welcome to skip all you want. And frolic for that matter. But, please, Orli, focus.” She freed his hand with the scissors she’d been wielding to cut ribbon. “Right now, you’re both playing this horrible, dancing-cautiously-around-each-other game. Maintaining a delicate balance. And I think you shouldn’t. Kiss him. Kick the balance to hell and see where you land.” She waved the scissors at him in a threatening manner, making sure she still had his attention. “He’s not going to kiss you first.”

“I don’t even know if he likes me.”

“If you keep saying stupid things like that, I’ll be force to bring up That Night.”

Orli frowned at the tiny flower he’d managed to mangle. Liv wasn’t allowed to talk about That Night after she’d abused the privilege. “He was drunk.”

“Hence the lowered inhibitions.”

“I think he liked your car more than me.”

“Who wouldn’t love the superpickle?” Orli couldn’t think of anyone. “Who wouldn’t love you?” That one had more candidates. “Maybe you should ask him to the homecoming dance…” Liv mused.

Orli stared at her in horror. “You are completely insane.”

“It’s a great idea,” Liv pouted.

“Insane. Ignoring for a second the entire, scandalized student body AND the fact that I’m not convinced I even want to date him, if he is at all gay, he’s very much in the closet! He’s not going to jump out suddenly, wear rainbow accessories and be my date to the Homecoming Dance!”

“How can you not be sure you want to date him? You _like_ him.”

“I also _like_ Johnny Depp. And that’s working out real well, too.”

“Oh, please. Elijah’s not a famous movie star, he’s a trumpet player that sits behind you in Calculus.”

“And throws things at me.”

“And you doubted that he cared. There are signs everywhere.”

“Can we talk about _anything_ else?”

“Fine. But I’m right. Here, try this on, I want to check the ribbon length.” She slipped a garter onto his arm.

“I’ve been reduced to a model.”

“I think that’s a step up from coward, so you’ve actually been promoted.”

Orli refused to be drawn back in. “Who is this for, anyway?”

“Yours. I already finished Elijah’s.”

“Where’s yours?”

“It’s half done right there. I thought you’d be able to make your own, but here I am, saving you from your own ineptness.”

“Not all of us can be mum making goddesses. Or gods, as the case may be. Although to be honest, I still don’t understand why you like this. Isn’t it a little too school spirit/rah, rah, cheerleader for you?”

Liv’s eyebrows rose, drawing attention to her heavily lined eyes. “I enjoy making and wearing mums. Everyone can do with that what they want, although I could suggest a few things for the cheerleaders.”

“I’m sure,” Orli agreed, then yelped as he managed to prick himself with a safety pin.

\-----

“Is it a home or an away game this week?” Dom had one of Elijah’s books balanced precariously on his head.

“Are you for real? It’s Homecoming, fucktard. _Home_ coming. What do you think?”

“A home game then?”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

“Are you going to the dance?”

“No. I don’t have a date.”

“Please. It would take you all of, like, three seconds to dig up some random girl to take. Don’t lie to me.”

Elijah frowned. “I’m not lying. I don’t have a date.” Dom gave him a look. “Although you are right that that’s not why I’m not going.”

“How is your mom doing?”

“She’s… not been eating much lately.”

“Tell her I said hello. I’d come over and tell her myself, but that might not be beneficial to her health.”

Elijah diplomatically said nothing. “Are you going to the dance?”

“Assistant Principal Gonzales has asked me kindly not to attend. Something to do with last year’s power outage. I will, therefore, be going.”

“Of course.”

“Maybe I should ask Miranda to go with me.”

“I think your face is grotesque enough without her breaking it for you.”

“Hey! I am a sexy beast. I do have to agree with the breakage part, though.”

“You always try to go out with people who will never, in a million years, agree. What is with that?”

Dom had a slightly bitter smile on his face. “Just unlucky in love, I guess. Not all of us can bat our big blue eyes and have any girl in school.”

Elijah, wisely, changed the subject.

\-----

“So here’s the thing.” Orli said as soon as Elijah opened the door. Elijah was struck by a powerful sense of déjà vu. “I’ve been driving around for an hour. I keep thinking there has to be some place else I’d want to be.” Orli stepped in and closed the door behind him, quite the opposite of the rambling apologies of last week.

“But I really can’t think of one. I could be at Liv’s, at home practicing, driving myself off a cliff, which was actually a possibility, believe it or not, but I found myself driving past your house for the third time tonight.”

“So here’s the thing,” Orli repeated. “I’m going to kiss you.”

“You’re not supposed to tell someone you’re going to kiss them. You just, do.”

Orli took a set forward. Elijah held his ground. “I’m giving you an opportunity to run.” Another step. “Or punch me and yell at me as I run.” Another. “Or whatever.”

Orli was close enough to feel Elijah’s breath against the skin of his neck. Elijah lifted his chin, in defiance, Orli thought, but it didn’t matter because he took advantage of the angle to cross the gap between them and press their lips together. Physically, the kiss was small, barely there, gentle pressure and Orli restraining himself from reaching out, but inside, emotionally, it’s cataclysmic, tearing Orli’s doubts from him in a single wave of heat and shaking Elijah’s world to its very foundation, because he’s kissing back.

 _Fuck_ , he thought.

“Fuck,” Orli whispered against his lips.

Elijah caught Orli’s wrist in his hand while they kiss, and held on. It wasn’t quite holding hands, but it was Orli’s skin beneath his fingers, and he wanted to touch more, but he’s suddenly afraid and wrenched away.

They stared at each other, panting, until Orli freed his wrist and backed toward the door.

“I’m going to go. You. That. Just, uh, think about it. And we’ll talk later, or something.” Orli ran for his life and knew in that instant that Liv was completely right about the coward thing.

Elijah watched him leave without moving, shocked, then wandered around the house after he’d gone. He double-checked that the doors were locked and forced himself not to peek out of the window to see if Orli had come back.

He sat on the edge of his bed and stared at his hands, trying to make them stop shaking. He couldn’t, though, just as he couldn’t stop replaying the feel of Orli’s lips over and over in his mind. He stood up. He felt his heart attempt to leap out his throat and sat back down.

 _So here’s the thing,_ he thought, parroting Orli, _If not now, never._

He stood again and walked to his mother’s room, turning on her bedside lamp. She blinked up at him, and he felt an intense pang of guilt at waking her when she was so weak, but it had to be now. He’d talk himself out of it by morning.

“Elijah?” She smiled at him, unsure.

He swallowed roughly and sat down on the edge of her bed. “Mom.” He forced himself to look her in the eyes. “I’m gay.”

Her expression grew serene. “Oh, honey, that doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s important, and I am so glad you wanted to tell me, but it doesn’t matter.”

“It doesn’t?” He felt about five again.

“Not to me, sweetie.” She tugged his arm, and he stretched out beside her. She hugged him. “I love you, Elijah. So much. Nothing could ever change that.” She kissed his cheek and felt the smile across his face.

He was gay.

It didn’t matter, though. He’d told the only person whose opinion he cared about, and she still loved him.


	12. Chapter 12

"Elijah, come in here a minute, please."

Elijah stepped into Dr. Jackson's office and shut the door. He waited, half bored, half impatient, while Mr. Jackson eyed him. He found he couldn't drag up any curiousity about why Mr. Jackson needed him. He added ‘sleep more’ to his to-do list.

"How are things at home, Elijah? How's your mom doing?"

"We're doing okay."

"If you need anything..."

"I know."

Mr. Jackson let the silence stretched again. "You're doing a great job with Orlando." Elijah's stomach did a sommersault. Orlando was the last thing he wanted to talk about. "Mr. Head says that Orlando's grades are much better than he would have anticipated."

"Thank you," Elijah said when it became obvious Mr. Jackson was waiting for a reply.

"You're welcome. However, that's not what I asked you in here for." Mr. Jackson shuffled a few sheets on his desk. "I'm trying to get the hotel room assignments taken care of for the BOA trip, and I'm having a problem I was hoping you could solve."

"What's the problem?"

"None of the other guys will agree to room with Orlando."

"Oh."

"They tell me he's gay, which I don’t want to know about. Figuring out the room placement is hard enough without taking _that_ into account. Anyway, I was hoping, with your ongoing success with Orlando, that I could put him in with you. But that means I'd have to put Dom in there too, unless I want a repeat of the San Antonio trip." Elijah smiled at that memory. "Would Orli and Dom get along?"

"Not really," Elijah answered honestly. "But it's only for one night."

"I'm trying to avoid putting Orlando into a bad situation."

Elijah thought about it for a minute. "Put Billy in there, then. Dom kinda listens to him. Between the two of us we should be able to keep him under control."

"That is an excellent idea. And you're okay with that?"

"To be honest, I don't think I could care less."

"That's such a refreshing attitude." He saw Elijah's eyes flick to the clock on the wall. "Alright, thank you. Get out of here."

Elijah was out the door in a flash. He walked into the music library and collapsed on one of the tables.

“You’re late,” Orli observed.

“I was talking to Mr. Jackson. About the BOA trip. He wanted to make sure I was fine with my roommates.”

“Who’s in your room?”

“You, Billy and Dom.”

Orli thought about it for a minute. “ _That’s_ going to be interesting.”

Elijah didn’t answer, and when Orli glanced over, he was half asleep, one arm mixing several piles of music together. Orli decided it was a good thing he was so cute, or Orli’d have to get upset about that.

\-----

"I brought cookies!" Orli announced when Elijah opened the door. He waved a tinfoil wrapped plate under Elijah's nose.

Elijah let him inside. "Have you ever thought of saying 'hello' instead of this immediate ramble thing? People might be less afraid. These are the cookies you spoon out of the tube and onto the baking sheet, aren't they?"

"What, aren’t my cookies good enough? I can leave. I'll take my cookies and go."

"Don't be such a drama queen." Elijah poured them both a glass of milk, and they sat at the kitchen table to eat. "I was going to say, next time don’t bother baking it. The cookie dough alone is better."

"Oh, I know. I made myself a little sick eating so much of it earlier."

"On a game day, shame, Orlando. Is that why you practically turned green when Dom shoved that pizza in your face."

"Mhmm," Orli agreed around a mouthful of cookie.

"Well, it's a good thing you didn't want it. He only offered it to you because it fell on the floor."

"I wouldn't have taken it. I don't take food from him on general principle. I'm not that stupid."

"That's true, you have survived-" their fingers brushed as they reached for the same cookie, and Elijah's hand jerked away. For a second they both stared at the cookie on the plate like it was blame for the tension between them.

There had not been one minute this past week to talk about what was going on between them, not that Orli’d tried particularly hard to make time. Orli sighed. He had no idea what to say.

“You could’ve gone to the dance, you know.”

“I know,” Orli agreed. “I’d rather be here.” There was a pause.

“I told my mom I’m gay,” Elijah blurted out suddenly.

“Really? I mean, that’s good. How’d it go?”

Elijah shrugged. “She said it didn’t matter.”

“Your mom’s so great.”

“Yeah, I love her.”

“I wish my parents had taken it that well.”

“What happened when you told them?”

“There was yelling. Lots of it.” Orli drifted off to the memory and came back shuddering. “Nothing good, trust me.”

Elijah licked some chocolate off his finger. Orli watched with wide eyes.

“I, uh, shouldn’t have come over, like I did, last time.”

Elijah raised an eyebrow when he saw Orli’s eyes on his mouth. “I didn’t mind. I mean, you did freak me out a little, but not... not in a bad way, and...” Elijah frowned. “Fuck. I don’t know what to say. I’d know what to say if you were a girl, but, uh...”

“I’m not.”

Elijah blushed. “No.”

“You could pretend I was a girl,” Orli teased. “I’m sure Billy’d let us borrow his skirt.”

“Kilt.” Elijah didn’t know which way to hold that thought so he let it go. “Let’s not.”

“What would you do if I was a regular guy? Like, um, Dom?”

This conversation, Elijah decided, was disturbing. “Wanna watch a movie?”

Orli smiled. “Sounds great.”

\-----

Deborah came out for a glass of water in the early hours of the morning. She found the boys curled up together on the couch. She grinned at how cute they were. She quite approved of Orlando, although she hadn’t mentioned it to Elijah yet.

She wandered back to her room, stopping to add a few items to Elijah’s grocery list on the way.

\-----

“Orlando. Elijah can’t be trusted, so I’m putting you in charge of shopping for clothes. Make sure he buys something nice. And he needs another pair of shoes,” Deborah told them before they left for the mall the next morning.

“Mom! I do not.”

“Your other ones are hideous, Elijah.”

“I _like_ those.”

“They’re gross,” Orli told him.

“Traitor,” Elijah pouted.

Deborah chuckled. “Have a good time, boys. You’re going to the grocery store, too, right?”

“On the way home,” Elijah agreed. He kissed her cheek. “Love you, Mom. I have my phone,” he added, and they were out the door.

“I hate shopping,” Elijah complained to Orli as they drove toward the mall.

Orli was too busy having a panic attack to reply to that. “Elijah. Elijah, please, stop tailgating him.” His foot pushed on the floorboard, searching in vain for the brake.

“Relax. I’m a great driver,” Elijah said as he whipped through a yellow light.

Orli whimpered and shut his eyes for the rest of the trip.

\-----

“Here, what about this?”

“I am NOT wearing that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s pink!”

“What’s wrong with pink?” Elijah glared at him and didn’t bother responding. “They have it in green, is that better?”

“Yes.” Orli added it to the mound of clothing Elijah was carrying. “Okay, let’s go try all this on.”

“What? I’m not trying all this on!”

“Yes, you are. If you don’t, how will you know if it fits?”

“Because I got the right size?”

“Dressing room! Now!” Elijah grumbled the whole way there.

\-----

“Umm...” Elijah stepped out to show Orli the much-too-large shirt. “I think I need a smaller size.” He stepped back in to put on the next thing.

“What? You tried on the shirt, it didn’t fit, and now you know to get another size, saving you a return trip to exchange it? Amazing!”

Elijah threw the shirt over the door so that it landed on Orli’s head. “I need a medium!” he called.

“What on earth convinced you that you needed a large in the first place?”

“I fucking hate shopping!”

Orli grinned. “Well, I’m having a wonderful time.”

“Of course you are! You get to make me miserable.”

“Payback’s a bitch.”

“Go get my shirt.”

“Keep up that attitude, and I’ll have to tell your mommy,” Orli threatened. Elijah gave him the finger over the door.

Orli left and returned with the correct size shirt. He threw it over the door, then peeked over it. Elijah had the latest pair of jeans he’d been trying pulled up to mid thigh. He pulled the shirt off his head and saw Orli’s eyes above the door.

“GAH!” he yelped, attempting to pull his pants up. “Fuck! No looking!”

Orli laughed so hard he collapsed on the ground, unable to breathe.

“Fag,” Elijah accused, which made Orli wheeze harder.

“Fairy,” Orli called back when he was able to get a breath.

“Are we done yet?”

“Nope. Still have to buy you some shoes after this.”

Elijah groaned.

\-----

Elijah put a loaf of bread into the basket. “Eww, wheat bread,” Orli complained.

“It’s healthier.”

“Here, I’ll be in charge of the list.”

“I know what we need.”

“Yeah, but I don’t.”

Elijah handed him the list, and Orli scanned over it. “Uhh, Elijah? Why do you have condoms on the list?” Orli asked.

“What?” Elijah’s voice broke, and he reached for the list. Orli could tell when Elijah saw the condoms, right between oranges and tea, because his eyes got even bigger than usual. Orli started laughing. “I did not put condoms on the list!” Elijah hissed at him.

Orli laughed harder. “This has been the most amusing shopping trip ever,” he choked out.

“No one likes you,” Elijah told him mildly. Then, “Fuck, you know what this means? My _mom_ put them on the list.”

That sobered Orli up. “Eww.”

“Yeah.”

A squeal echoed down the bread isle. They turned and saw Liv hurrying towards them.

“You guys are grocery shopping together?! That is so cute!”

“My god, she’s squee’ing,” Orli whispered to Elijah.

“Kill me now,” Elijah whispered back.

“I love you guys. Bread. You’re buying bread.” She squealed again. “I’m in a hurry. Talk to you on Monday, Orli,” she promised. She beamed at them and hurried off again.

“At least she warned you,” Elijah offered.

“I live in fear,” Orli said.

“Can we just leave?” Elijah looked at the basket, empty except for one loaf of bread.

“Without your condoms?” Orli asked innocently, laughing again when Elijah glared at him. “My stomach hurts,” he complained, muscles sore from all the amusement.

“Good,” Elijah replied, without one bit of sympathy.


	13. Chapter 13

“So,” Liv started in that tone that made Orli want to cower, “I know you want to tell me all the gory details.”

Orli looked up from the book he was reading for English. “What gore? There’s no gore.”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

Yes, he did, and Orli knew better than to pretend otherwise. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’ll get it out of you eventually. And you’ll feel better if you tell me.”

“I will not,” Orli huffed, crossing his arms and doing his best not to appear scared when Liv pinned him with her eyes.

She arched an eyebrow and settled in to wait.

“There’s nothing to tell, anyway. We haven’t really… done anything.”

“Really?”

“No, I’m lying,” Orli replied sarcastically. Like he’d have said that if it wasn’t true.

“Hmm. Why not?”

“I don’t know. It’s. Uh. I don’t know.”

“I cannot believe you’re both still pussyfooting around each other.”

“Trust me, pussy has nothing to do with it,” Orli joked with a grin.

Liv rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid.”

“I can’t help it.”

Liv frowned, but ignored the old argument about Orli insulting himself for the new argument about Elijah. “What’s wrong with the two of you? I’d have thought you’d be all over each other.”

“I don’t _know_.” Orli’s hands sketched the air in exasperation. “It’s not like we’ve had that much time. We have UIL tomorrow and I have two tests this week.”

“It was going so well, too. You were buying bread.”

“What does that even mean?” Orli asked, still not understanding her fixation on the bread. It was wheat bread, anyway, and Orli’s nose wrinkled in disgust at the thought.

“It’s just very cute, Orli. Something a couple would do. Straight guys don’t go grocery shopping together. Except for beer and stuff like that.”

“You are so weird.”

“And you aren’t getting any.”

“Hey, it’s his turn! I kissed him first.”

“Turns, Orli, very mature.”

“Well… I…”

“Do you want me to talk to him?”

“No!” Orli practically screeched. “That’s a Bad Plan. A very, very Bad Plan.”

“Good. We’ve settled that. I’ll talk to him later.”

“No. No, you won’t! Can’t you just leave me to my pathetic existence where nothing ever works out and I don’t question it? Really, I’m fine with it. It’s always ended well in the past.”

“It has not. Otherwise, you’d already have found someone. And you and Elijah are _perfect_ together. I refuse to let the fact that you’re both morons ruin that.”

“Okay, I’ll…” Orli almost said ‘talk to him’, but changed it at the last minute to, “do something about it. Just please, stay out of it.”

Liv didn’t look like she believed him.

“Please? I’ll beg,” Orli offered.

“By Friday, or I’m getting involved.”

“Sunday?” Orli bargained.

“Friday.”

“Saturday?”

“Today?”

“Right. Friday’s great,” he assured her, but really that was the closest Orli’d ever come to lying to Liv because he could already feel fear weighing down his chest, making it difficult to breathe.

He _hated_ making the first move, and he’d already had to once.

\-----

“I’ll kick your ass,” Dom suggested, holding up two game controllers.

Elijah snorted. “You can try.” The past summer of doing nothing but taking care of his mom had left him with undeniable skill at video games, and Elijah never passed up a chance to prove it.

“I still think we should take a hit out on that fucking judge,” Dom said as the game started.

“Not worth it. We still got a one*, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, but it just isn’t quite as sweet, not having all of them. No sweepstake for us.”

Elijah shrugged. “We’ll just have to blow them away at BOA, then.”

“That’s next weekend, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. This Friday is the game against Drake High School.” Drake was their biggest rival and the last team they always played because their football team never made it to playoffs. There was no animosity between the two bands, however, and they always took gifts and the officers visited the other band.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” Dom asked, breaking Elijah away from his thoughts.

“Hmm?”

“You didn’t just come over for no reason. You don’t do stuff like this, especially not on a Wednesday. So what’s going on?”

“I, uh…” Elijah suddenly felt nauseous, even though he’d sworn to himself that his mother’s opinion was the only important one. He didn’t want to lose his best friend.

Dom paused the game. “Elijah…” he prompted, serious like he only was around Elijah. When Dom said it like that, it meant everything about trust and best friends that they never said aloud.

“I’m gay.” Elijah winced at the defensive tone in his voice, realizing how much he was expecting a fight and how much he didn’t want one.

Dom’s eyes fasten on the ground. Elijah’s throat clenched, waiting for his reaction, until he couldn't breathe.

“Oh,” Dom said, and then added, uneasy, “Yeah, me too.”

Elijah’s jaw dropped. “What!?”

“What?” Dom asked, guarded.

“‘Me too’? Is that joke?”

“No! I wouldn’t fucking joke about something like that.”

Elijah couldn’t argue that. He took a deep breath. This was not where he expected this conversation to go. “How long have you known?”

“How long have _you_ known?” Dom countered.

“Consciously? Like, two weeks.”

“Oh.”

Elijah raised his eyebrows expectantly when Dom didn’t answer himself.

“Okay. But I have not told fucking anybody this, so keep it to your fucking self, understand?”

Dom looked so fiercely serious that Elijah agreed without reservation.

“Since I was seven.”

“SEVEN?”

“Shut UP,” Dom hissed, punching Elijah in the shoulder.

“Ow!” Elijah rubbed his shoulder, frowning, then saw Dom’s eyes on the door. His parents were down the hall. “Sorry. Go on.”

“My cousin was visiting. He was from Florida and was five years older and cooler and had one of those scooters my mom wouldn’t let me have because she thought they were too dangerous, all of which made him practically a god in my eyes. Our parents went out to dinner, leaving us home alone.

“I was so excited,” Dom told him, a bitter twist to his lips that Elijah had never seen before. The earlier nausea, mostly retreated, returned with tidal wave force as Elijah slowly realized what Dom was about to say. “Us ‘big boys’ got to stay home alone.”

Dom had to stop and take a steadying breath. “It was about half an hour after they’d gone, and we were bored already, and he said, ‘You want to do something real fun?’ and, of course, I did. And he…” Dom made a vague hand motion. “You know.”

Elijah was quiet for a full minute until he could control the urge to yell. His voice was hard and flat when he spoke. “He abused you.”

“I didn’t even realize that it was wrong at first, although I didn’t tell anyone about it because I felt bad about it. I was even a little afraid I’d get in trouble with my mom when she found out.

“In middle school, I noticed that I was attracted to guys, but there was no way that I was going to be like my cousin, so I screwed every skirt I could and made fun of Orli and pretty much everyone else, because I wanted everyone to know I wasn’t gay. That I wasn't him.”

“I’ll kill him,” Elijah vowed, and Dom believed him in that moment. He’d never thought Elijah capable of really hurting anyone.

“I’ve thought about it a lot, Elijah, and I can’t hate him anymore. At first because it was giving him more of my attention than he deserved, and later because I understood that there’s a huge chance he was only doing to me what he’d learned from someone else.”

“A chance?”

“I never asked him,” Dom replied with an impressive amount of dignity. “Lately, if by lately you mean the past year, and I do, I’ve been thinking that I know people who are gay, and they’re not all bad. So maybe I could like guys but not be like him after all. And, well, if you’re gay, that settles that once and for all, because you are _nothing_ like him.”

Elijah reached out and clasped Dom’s shoulder, and Dom smiled gratefully for a second before Elijah pulled back, and they both pretended nothing had happened. Although, Elijah mused, it wasn’t like they had to worry about making people think they were overly masculine anymore.

“Anyway, being gay doesn’t really change anything about me, right? It’s not like I have to dress girlie like Bloomie does or any-”

Dom cut off suddenly, staring wide eyed at Elijah. “You’re fucking Bloomie!” he cried. “Fuckin’ hell, how’d I miss that!”

Elijah turned crimson. “I am _not_. Not… really.”

“Fuck,” Dom told him. “Why not? He’s fucking hot.”

Why not, indeed, Elijah thought, but said instead, “I think that’s the longest you’ve gone without cussing in years.”

Dom laughed and restarted the game, setting everything back to normal.

\-----

“You’re just going to have to do it!” Orli told himself. It was Thursday, and Orli was running out of time. “It’s that or Liv, and I think everyone and their dog agrees that’s a Bad Plan.”

He knocked on the door. “You should probably stop talking to yourself as well, idiot,” he muttered and then waited for Elijah, who opened the door several seconds later.

“Hello,” he greeted him.

“Hey,” Elijah answered, stepping back to let Orli through the doorway.

Orli shut the door behind him and then found himself pinned to it, Elijah’s body stretched along his, a hot, hard press that would have made him whimper if Elijah’s mouth hadn’t covered his own.

Elijah’s tongue pushed at his lips, and Orli opened his mouth wide, sucking in Elijah’s tongue and tilting his head to struggle back against Elijah’s more-than-kissing.

“Thank-fucking-god,” Orli gasped when they tore apart for a breath, slouching down against the door to give his hips more leverage against Elijah’s and bring their mouths a bit more level. Elijah kissed him again with enough force to bash his head against the door, and Orli’s hands fastened on Elijah’s hips, crushing them together with all his might.

Then Elijah’s mom called out, asking Elijah who was at the door, and they broke apart.

Orli stood up straight and wiped one hand across his mouth before turning to Elijah, who looked a little nervous now that they’d stopped.

“Hello,” Orli said again, beaming so hard his newly bruised lips ached, but it was worth it to see a similar joy filter onto Elijah’s face.

Fuck if this didn’t seem like the answer to all their problems, and Orli forced himself not to lean in for another taste before going to say hi to Elijah’s mom.

*At UIL marching competition, there are five judges, each of whom award a score. I-Excellent II-Good III-Average IV-Below Average V-Poor. A sweepstake is having all the judges award you a one.


	14. Chapter 14

“KENICKI!”

Billy’s voice rang out from his perch atop the drum major podium. Laughter echoed from the group of Drake officers heading their way, one figure jumping up and down and waving.

Dom made a low noise in his throat and glared off in the direction of the game, which they never paid much attention to, but Elijah didn’t have time to ask as he stood and made his way to the field with the other Rockey Peak officers, leaving his trumpet in Claire’s possession for safety.

The officers quickly sorted themselves into pairs, finding the corresponding member from the other band. The Drake trumpet section leader was a small blond named Amanda who giggled when Elijah shook her hand.

Zach, the tuba section leader glowered at him as they waited for Billy and Miranda to exchange gifts with the Drake drum majors, and Elijah tried in confusion to think of what he’d done, until he caught Zach eyeing Amanda. Elijah glanced at her. Yeah, now that he looked, she was kinda hot. In a … girlie way. But he hadn’t even noticed.

Elijah snorted. How fuckin’ gay could he get?

Billy’s voice over their loud speaker stopped that train of thought.

“Heeey, Band!”

“HEEEY, WHAT?” The entire band shouted back at him.

“This is Kenicki!”

“HI, KENICKI!”

“He’s the head drum major for Drake Band.”

There were a few halfhearted cheers.

“And his favorite cereal is LUCKY CHARMS!”

A roar of approval met this remark, and Kenicki climbed down off the podium, replaced by a new Drake officer to be introduced, until everyone had been properly greeted.

Then they skipped over to the other side of the field to repeat the process. No, really, skipped. Elijah normally laughed his ass off at them, too. But when Amanda pulled him in line next to Orli, who twined their arms together, he’d felt like skipping, dammit.

They reached the visitor’s stands, breathless and laughing. Kenicki and Billy were in an animated conversation.

Amanda snagged the microphone and winked at him. “You can go first.” He grinned and stepped to the ladder. “Wait, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No,” Elijah answered honestly, and then was pushed up the ladder before he could decide if this was the time to bring up his boyfriend.

Or did he have a boyfriend?

Fuck. Had they talked about it?

“Heeey, Band!” Amanda called over the speakers.

“HEEEY, WHAT?”

“This is Elijah.”

“HI, ELIJAH!”

“He’s the trumpet section leader!”

The Drake trumpet section, positioned about halfway up the stands, went wild. He waved to his brothers-in-arms.

“And watch out, girls, this one’s single!”

The female half of the band screamed out, and Elijah laughed and struck a pose. A flute player pretended to faint. Elijah laughed again and climbed down.

It took some effort to keep the smile pasted on as Amanda pulled him close to speak in his ear, and he caught Orli, arms crossed over his chest, steadfastly not looking over at them.

Fuck. Again.

\-----

Orli was standing with his back to the door in the middle of the music library when Elijah found him. They were both in the shorts and show shirts and black socks that they had to wear beneath their uniforms.

“Orli.” Elijah sighed. “Are you mad at me?”

“No,” Orli breathed. His shoulders slumped a little more. “Not really.”

Elijah walked around to face him. “I didn’t tell her I was single, Orli, I swear. She asked if I had a girlfriend, and no matter how many times Dom and I have called you a girl, the answer to that was no.”

Orli laughed weakly, and Elijah was horrified to see the movement dislodge a few tears.

“C’mere,” Elijah whispered, and pulled Orli into a hug, Orli’s head against his shoulder.

“She was all over you, Elijah. And it was driving me crazy. And I had this sudden horrible fear that you liked it, liked her.”

“I didn’t, Orli. I don’t like girls. I didn’t even _look_ at her until I saw Zach checking her out.”

Orli’s breath caught in his throat. “I don’t like being jealous. But it was bad because… because I didn’t know if I was allowed to be, ya know?”

“Yeah,” Elijah sighed. “If she had asked me if I was single, I wouldn’t have known what to say.”

Orli sniffed and picked up his head. “Do you want to be single?”

“I, uh, I’ve been single for a long time. A change wouldn’t be… bad. Not if… not if it was with you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Orli rested his forehead against Elijah’s. “So…?”

“So you’re my boyfriend, huh?” Elijah asked, arms tightening around Orli’s waist.

“Yes,” Orli agreed. A huge smile broke out on his face. “And you’re mine, precious.”

Elijah mock glared at him and pinched the skin under his hands. “Don’t call me that,” he growled as Orli squealed out a laugh.

Orli twisted free and ran out the door, still laughing, Elijah close behind.

\-----

“I love storms,” Elijah said abruptly, breaking the quiet rhythm of pounding rain and Orli’s typing. He was working on a college application essay, which was something Elijah didn’t want to think about.

Orli could see Elijah’s face reflected in the black of the window. He hit save and moved to stand behind Elijah, wrapping his arms around Elijah’s waist, resting his chin on Elijah’s shoulder. Elijah shivered at the touch.

They watched lightning tear apart the steady black of night and rain.

Orli pressed a kiss to the thin skin behind an ear, just at the hairline, a spot he’d never kissed before. There were way too many of those.

“Does it bother you that I’m taller?” Orli asked, meeting Elijah’s eyes in the glass.

“Nah,” he smirked. “I decided a long time ago that my stunning beauty and outrageous sex appeal make up for any lack of height.”

Orli laughed, and Elijah’s smirk grew into a smile at the sound.

“It doesn’t bother you, does it?”

Orli licked around the circle of Elijah’s ear. “Course not.”

Elijah shivered again, this time more pronounced. “I’m not vain or shallow or anything.”

“I know that,” Orli reassured him, eyebrows creasing in confusion.

“I mean, I know I’m a jerk sometimes, but I really don’t care about stuff like that. I must have been acting stupider than usually to give you that impression.”

“What? Oh, no, Lijah, it’s not anything you did. I just know that it bothers some people. Wanted to make sure you weren’t one of them.” Elijah tilted his head to the side as to listen, and Orli took advantage of that to kiss along his neck.

“Some people?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Some people as in a random poll you read about or as in people you know?”

“Some people as in a couple of guys I dated.” Orli flicked his tongue beneath the collar of Elijah’s t-shirt, wanting to taste a little more.

The thought of Orli with some people made Elijah’s stomach turn. “Well, some people must be pretty stupid if they thought there was anything wrong with you. Hell, even Dom admitted you were hot.” He leaned back into Orli’s embrace.

Orli smiled at that. “You told him then.”

“I told him I was gay. He asked me if I was fucking you. When I said no, he wanted to know why not. Couldn’t think of a good answer to that one, actually,” Elijah teased.

“Oh, it’ll be a _long_ time before I put out,” Orli explained with a wicked grin. “You’ll have to bribe me with flowers and chocolate and poetry and fine restaurants and long, romantic walks where we talk about our _feelings_. And you’ll have to be charming on top of that, because my mom always told me to wait for marriage.” Orli held up his left hand and wiggled his ring finger. He was able to keep a straight face through all of it until he saw the expression on Elijah’s face, and then cracked up.

“You’re so easy!” Orli exclaimed through his laughter.

“Yeah, but apparently you aren’t,” Elijah retorted, and Orli laughed harder.

“You don’t really want flowers, do you?”

Orli snorted. “No. I am not a girl, remember? Despite the number of time you and Dom called me one.”

“Yeah.” There was no good way to come back to that. “Sorry about that.”

“You know what I would like, though?”

“What?” Elijah questioned, somewhat fearful.

“You to shut up and make out with me,” Orli answered slyly.

“Fuck yeah.” Elijah turned around and smirked as he pulled Orli down until their lips met.

It was a wet, thorough kiss, not like the desperate and hasty attempts of before. Elijah licked his way past Orli’s teeth, rather pleased that they’d gotten so good at this in such a short amount of time. Orli tasted like tea, and sugar, and the mints he’d been crunching on after dinner. Orli sucked on the tongue invading his mouth.

He tasted like sex.

Elijah’s body knew it, too. He was as hard as a … really, really hard thing. He’d find the word later, right now his brain didn’t have enough oxygen. And he was too intent on seeking out all the things he could do with his tongue that made Orli squirm.

Orli’s arm wrapped around his shoulders, drawing him closer, taking advantage of their height difference to get control of his kiss. Elijah shuddered, overwhelmed by the warmth of Orli draped against him and the chill of the window at his back.

He moaned when Orli bit down on his lip and teased the captured surface with strokes of his tongue. Orli could feel the vibrations where their chests pressed together. Elijah threaded a hand through Orli’s curls, opening eyes he didn’t remember closing to see the flush on Orli’s cheeks and dark eyelashes against tan skin.

Fucking beautiful.

“You know,” Elijah whispered into Orli’s mouth, smiling, “They say that brass players are the best kissers.”

“Hmm,” Orli replied distractedly. “You’ll have to convince me.”

Elijah’s free hand flexed against the small of Orli’s back. “No problem.”

They made out until their lips and jaws were sore like they’d been practicing their instruments for hours, but both agreed that this was a much better reason to end up with their faces hurting. And then they only stopped because Orli had to go home.


	15. Chapter 15

“Fuckin’ A, man, we’re here!” Billy dropped his bag as soon as he cleared the door and, with a running start, leapt on one of the beds and started jumping.

Billy sighed and picked up Dom’s bag, placing it in a corner out of the way. He shook his head as Dom started jumping from one double bed to the other.

“Which one do you want?” Dom asked Billy.

“The one you haven’t mangled,” Elijah called from the door, knowing that Dom had jumped around before anything else. He dragged his bad into the room, sighing at the mess Dom had created in the 10.3 seconds they’d been there. “Never mind.”

“Can you believe that the bus’ air condition was broken like that?” Dom chattered on, oblivious to the exhaustion of the other boys. “I call first shower!” He whipped off his sweat soaked t-shirt and threw it over his shoulder.

It smacked Orli in the face as he walked in. Dom laughed.

“Eww!” Orli tugged it off, quickly and touching as little of it as he could manage, and let it fall to the floor. “Ew, ew, ew. You’re ripe, man.”

“Yup!” Dom agreed cheerfully, and bounced into the bathroom.

Billy, Dom, and Orli heard the shower start.

“Quick, let’s get in bed and fall asleep before he gets out again,” Elijah urged.

“No way, Lij,” Orli refused. He smiled at Elijah’s pout but didn’t cave. “I want to shower, too. Blegh, I have Dom cooties!” Elijah giggled. Orli ran a hand over his face and wiped it on Elijah’s shoulders.

“Don’t fucking give them to me!” Elijah yelped, rubbing his shoulder against a wall, making Orli giggle this time.

“Uh, which bed do you want, Billy?” Orli asked after a second, wondering where he should put down his stuff.

“The one farthest from the door. And Dom’s sleeping with me.”

Elijah and Orli both turned to look at him.

“What? Mr. Jackson gave me a huge lecture about keeping him on a leash. If he gets up during the night, I want to know.”

Elijah and Orli looked at each other then started unpacking their stuff. On their bed.

Orli yawned. “It’s not night anymore, anyway. It’s one in the fucking morning.”

“The freshmen will be shit tomorrow. None of them are gonna sleep,” Billy added sadly.

“I’m gonna be shit tomorrow if I don’t get to sleep soon. Do you mind if I have the shower next?” Orli asked.

Billy and Elijah shook their heads no, so Orli grabbed his shower stuff and waited at the bathroom door. He didn’t so much as blink before disappearing into the bathroom when Dom threw open the door and swaggered out in nothing but a towel.

Dom dressed quickly and started shuffling a deck of cards. Billy checked through his bag to make sure he had everything he needed for BOA tomorrow, again. Elijah sat and waited for Orli.

“Dom,” Billy said after a few minutes, catching his eye with a firm look, “If you so much as sneeze wrong and make Orli uncomfortable, I’ll nail your ass to the wall.”

Dom looked at Elijah.

Elijah raised an eyebrow. _What?_

Dom showed him the tiny space between his finger and thumb. _Just a little bit?_

Elijah moved his head to the right slightly. _No._

Dom sighed and pouted. “Alright,” he added, finally, for Billy’s benefit.

Billy snorted.

The bathroom door opening stopped any further commentary. Much to Elijah’s disappointment, Orli was already wearing his pajamas when he stepped out of the bathroom.

\-----

Elijah took his shower last, and didn’t know whether to be grateful that there was only cold water left because it discouraged the massive hard on he had since learning he’d be sharing a bed with Orli or upset at the shivers it was causing.

In the end, he called it a draw.

Orli was sitting on the end of the bed, watching Dom warily as he studied a game that might have been solitaire, but looked random from where Elijah was standing.

“Let’s go to bed,” Elijah suggested, weary. They had to get up at seven in the fucking morning tomorrow. Today, he corrected himself.

“I’m not tired. Let’s play cards!” Dom smiled winningly at him.

“Christ, it’s almost two, Dom. No way.”

“Please? Just a game or two. Five card stud.”

“What’s that?” Orli asked.

“Poker,” Dom said, confused.

“I don’t know how to play poker,” Orli told him.

Dom gave him a look of disgust and astonishment. “ _That_ is fucking pathetic. What do you know how to play?”

Orli considered it. Elijah considered the way Orli’s curls would look on a pillow a fucking foot from him, and then didn’t consider it anymore. Boxers didn’t offer much camouflage.

“Speed.”

“I don’t think I can think fast right now,” Elijah told him.

“Well, how about a little motivation?” Dom proposed. “We could play strip speed.”

Dom glanced in the direction of the bed where Billy was currently sleeping and missed the disturbed look Orli and Elijah exchanged.

Elijah shrugged. “I will if you will,” he answered, looking straight at Orli.

Orli’s eyes narrowed. “Is that a challenge?”

Elijah shrugged again.

“Maybe just a game or two,” Orli decided.

Dom cheered. “A game or two and we’ll all be fucking naked!”

Orli glanced down at his flannel pants and undershirt. “Oh, joy.”

“Dom,” Elijah said, knowing how Dom’s mind worked, “All the jewelry counts as a single item.”

Dom frowned and swore, but didn’t argue. He was in way too good of a mood.

\-----

Orli pointedly gave the deck of cards his complete attention, smirking as Elijah stripped off his boxers, revealing a happy trail, hips, and finally his cock, then pulling the boxers the rest of the way down and tossing them away. He grinned, knowing that no matter how hard Orli seemed to be concentration on the cards, he was watching Elijah’s every move.

He had a brief moment of insecurity that he wouldn’t… measure up to what Orli’d expected, and then ruthlessly squashed it.

Dom had been naked for a couple of rounds. Elijah had only lasted this long because he’d been wearing socks, which was unusual, but you couldn’t be too sure about how clean hotel room floor were.

Sitting bare assed on the floor next to a naked Dom only proved that point.

Orli had only lost one game and his shirt, which really sucked, because Elijah was dying what he had on under those pants. Boxers or briefs or… nothing?

It was amazing how all consuming that question was.

“Another game?” Orli asked, smiling and openly eyeing him.

“No way, I’m fucking freezing,” Dom said, getting up off the floor. He curled up in a blanket on the only chair in the room.

“Oh, sure,” Elijah answered airly. “I’ve got nothing left to loose.”

“That’s true,” Orli mused. “What’re you going to give me if I win?”

“I bet you’ll think of something,” Elijah answered.

“Absolutely,” Orli promised in a low voice that made Elijah want to surrender now, yes, please, whatever you fucking say.

But he had his dignity. And a burning desire to know what was beneath that fucking flannel.

None of which made any difference against how fucking fast Orli was. He lost spectacularly. Five games in a row.

“Elijah, man, you fucking suck,” Dom commented.

“As much as he owes me, he just might,” Orli leered.

Dom laughed. “Sexual favors, huh? Fucking brilliant.”

“You ready to surrender?” Orli asked, eyes dancing.

Elijah yawned and stretched, the play of muscles catching Orli’s attention.

Orli swallowed. Hard.

“How about one more game?”

“Right,” Orli agreed, distracted.

Elijah waited a second, then grabbed an ankle in easy reach, pretending to shaking him from his daze, but really taking the opportunity to rub his thumb across the delicate bones along the inside.

Orli jumped. Then dealed out the cards, frowning.

Elijah casually scratched at his shoulder, moving down until his fingers were flicking back and forth against a nipple.

Orli looked up when he finished, eyes widening and staring at Elijah’s hand. After a second, Elijah reached to pick up the cards Orli’d dealt him.

“Ready?” Elijah asked.

Orli’s eyes dropped slowly to his cards. “Yes…”

It was a massacre. Elijah smacked his last card down before Orli was half through his own.

“Well, then,” Elijah drawled, giddy with victory.

Orli threw down his cards, then slowly tugged down his pants. Elijah didn’t breathe. Everything seemed to slow down, and then there was Orlando Bloom, sitting completely naked on the floor with him.

Elijah swallowed a whimper.

Orli was almost completely hard, and rising as Elijah watched. Elijah could feel himself reacting too, destroying the past hour of self-control. But damn, it was worth it to watch Orli’s dick growing like that.

He heard Orli’s breath catch, and realized that Orli could see the same thing happening to him.

“Yeah, okay,” Dom said, making the other two boys jump. “On that note, I think it’s time to fucking go to sleep.”

Elijah glanced at the clock. Shit. Four in the morning. “Yeah,” he said, starting to agree, then got lost staring at Orli again.

Dom crossed the room and crawled into bed. “Come on, fuckers. Turn off the lights.”

Elijah rolled his eyes, but got up. Orli slid between the sheets of their bed, Elijah joining him after he switched off the lights.

They lay silent, listening to each other breathing until Dom started to snore softly.

“I want to touch you so bad,” Orli whispered after the space of few heartbeats.

Elijah groaned. “You have no idea.”

“You owe me big, too.”

A tingle ran throw Elijah’s body. “You cashing in?”

Orli hesitated. “No.” Not with Dom and Billy in the room, anyway. “Sleep now.”

“Yeah.” Elijah closed his eyes for a second before snapping them opening, a memory pulling at his mind. “Hey, was it just me, or was Dom whacking it the whole time he was watching us play?”

Orli laughed, no sound, just movement that Elijah could feel through the mattress. “I think so, but I really don’t want to know. This has to be the weirdest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“Goodnight, Lijah.”

“Night, Orli.”


	16. Chapter 16

“I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves, everybody’s nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves, and it goes like this! I know a song…”

Elijah counted to ten slowly, knowing it wouldn’t be much longer before Dom got distracted and stopped, but fuck, that song was annoying. And Dom was in band, not choir, for a good reason.

“Shut up, dumbass!” Jake, a saxophone player, yelled. “We’re trying to study here!” He added, although he was really flirting with a one of the clarinet girls.

“Up yours!” Dom called out, and started singing again.

Jake glared at him. “Shut the fuck up, you freak! What is your problem?”

“Your face,” Dom told him. “Honestly,” he added, turning to the girl, “how can you stand to fucking look at him?”

Jake choked in disbelief before launching himself Dom.

Dom was ready, though, and moved so that Jake fell groin first into Dom’s pointy knee.

“SHIT!” Jake cried, and punched Dom’s eye.

Elijah threw his book down and tried to pull Jake off of Dom as he elbowed Jake’s jaw, both of them fighting for advantage, Dom’s knee still painfully buried in Jake’s crotch.

Billy flew around the corner and helped Elijah pull them apart.

“What is going on?” Billy demanded.

No one answered, Jake and Dom held apart and glaring at each other.

“Who started it?”

Silence. Billy glanced at Elijah.

“Jake started the fight,” Elijah informed him quietly.

“That’s a lie!” Jake howled. “Fucking fag, what do you—”

Dom ripped himself out of Elijah’s hands and punched Jake in the mouth before he could finish. Jake crashed to the floor, and Billy pinned Dom face first against the wall to keep him from doing any more damage.

Jake sat up and wiped the blood from his mouth.

“Start another fight, and Mr. Jackson will give you a referral to the office and take points from your grade,” Billy told him, restraining a still struggling Dom.

Scowling, Jake nodded as he got up and left.

Billy sighed and turned Dom around, checking his eye where he’d been punched. “No more fighting,” he warned, and followed after Jake.

Dom slid down the wall to sit on the floor. Elijah watched him, concerned, as Dom’s eyes followed Billy until he was out of sight.

Elijah sucked in a breath as he realized what was going on. “Billy?” he asked, completely stunned.

Dom started and looked at him sharply, eyes wide. He didn’t deny it.

“Fuck.” Elijah lay down on the floor next to him, staring blankly at the ceiling. “Fuck. You really do have a thing for people who don’t like you back!”

Dom frowned. “Yeah, I know.”

“You want me to help?”

“Fuck no! God, are you insane? There’s no way he’ll ever fucking like me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Fuck, Elijah, you said it! Now, promise me you won’t do anything. Not a fucking thing!” Dom added as Elijah started to argue.

“Alright, fine, I promise. Damn.” They sat quietly for a second, Dom rubbing his sore hand. Elijah started laughing.

“What?” Dom questioned suspiciously.

“Orli thought you had a thing for me,” Elijah giggled.

Dom snorted and kicked Elijah’s shoulder. “Don’t fucking flatter yourself.” He shook his head when Elijah just laughed harder.

\-----

“Elijah!” Liv smiled as he slid into the bench across from her in the outside cafeteria. “This is a surprise! Get tired of the popular crowd licking you ass?”

“A little hostile today, Liv. That time of the month?” he asked.

“No, no, just surprised that you’d lower yourself to sit with me,” Liv answered, voice sugary sweet with sarcasm.

Elijah raised his eyebrows at her. “I wanted to talk to you about something important, but if you’re in this kind of mood, I’ll just go.”

“No, stay,” Liv sighed. “Sorry. I’m a little pissed off. I made a C on my history test.”

“Ouch.”

“I know. Orli said he’d help me later, though. I’ll probably be able to pull it up. But enough about me. Important, you said?”

“Yes. Orli told me you enjoy being a matchmaker.”

Liv considered him, surprised. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”

“No. In fact, I need your help.”

“There is not way I’m setting you up with anyone, you fucking bastard, and what have you done to Orli?!”

“God, Liv, calm down! Nothing! It’s not for me!” He waited until she looked less likely to kill him before continuing. “I was just wondering if you’d be interested. It’s quite a challenge.”

Liv thought for a moment, appearing reluctant, but Elijah knew he’d intrigued her. “Tell me more.”

“It’s Dom.”

Liv rolled her eyes. “Which poor girl is the goober lusting for this time?”

“It’s not like that, Liv.”

“Okay. So tell me who he likes.”

“I can’t.”

“You can’t.”

“No. Promised him I wouldn’t.”

“How am I supposed to set him up with her, then?”

“You’re friends with Miranda, right?”

“Oh, God, he’s gonna have to give up that dream!”

“Not her. It’s even more… interesting than that.”

“Is it…” Liv trailed off and studied him, thinking hard. “Oh. My. God. Billy?”

Elijah smiled triumphantly.

“Fuck…” Liv gaped at him. “I thought it was weird that all of you roomed together on the trip!”

“So what are you going to do?”

“Me? You’re not going to help?”

“I promised I wouldn’t do anything.”

Liv shook her head. “I may need reinforcement. Can I tell someone else?”

Elijah smiled. “Tell them what? You didn’t hear anything from me.”

Liv laughed, ideas and anticipation running through her. “Perfect.”

\-----

“Where are we going again?”

“To see a movie.”

“Yeah, I know that. Why?” Dom still couldn’t believe that Elijah was voluntarily leaving his house.

“Because Liv invited us. Her mom bought tickets for everyone in celebration of how good we did at BOA.”

“Okay.” Dom looked confused, and Elijah had to hide a smile.

Liv normally did have some kind of party at the end of marching season, but Dom had never been on the guest list before, and Elijah had never gone.

This time, however, Billy was invited.

Not that Dom knew that. Yet.

Elijah hid another smile as he parked, and they went inside.

Dom spotted them first, recognized Billy standing there with Orli, Liv and Miranda and immediately threw a wild, half-panicked, half-angry glance at Elijah.

Elijah gave him an innocent look and shrugged.

Not wanting to make things easy on Dom, Elijah made his way to Orli’s side. “Hey,” Elijah greeted him, awkward suddenly. They’d never been out like this, away from school and Elijah’s house, and Elijah didn’t know what to do.

“Ready to go in?” Liv asked brightly, arm linked with Miranda’s.

“Yeah,” Orli said, as Elijah grinned at Dom’s apparent discomfort. Billy was calm as ever.

Liv and Miranda led the way, and after struggling with himself for a few seconds, Elijah wrapped an arm around Orli’s waist and followed, leaving Billy and Dom to trail behind.

Orli gave him a shy, happy smile and moved closer.

It was a late showing, and the movie had been released for a while, so they had the theater to themselves, which suited Elijah just fine. He relaxed into his seat, leaning toward Orli, and listened to the crappy music as they waited for the movie to start.

\-----

“That was a great movie!” Miranda said for a second time as they left the theater.

“It was,” Orli agreed. “Johnny Depp is the hottest man in the whole world.” He sighed dramatically.

“Excuse me?” Elijah cried in mock outrage.

“After you, of course, precious,” Orli corrected himself.

Liv choked out a laugh. “Precious?”

Elijah groaned and pouted at Orli. “I know you did not just call me that.”

“Hey, let’s go get pizza!” Liv exclaimed.

“That sounds so good right now,” Miranda decided. “Shotgun!” she yelled, and raced Orli for the front seat of the superpickle.

Miranda won, and stuck her tongue out at Orli. Elijah pulled him into the very back seat, forcing Billy and Dom to sit together. Dom appeared more relaxed, too, and wasn’t making a complete ass of himself like normal. It didn’t even sound like he was cussing that much.

Elijah grinned. Dom had it bad.

Orli leaned his head on Elijah’s shoulder, curls brushing his throat. Elijah realized he was trying to guess what kind of shampoo Orli used based on the smell and decided that he had it bad, too.

The pizza place was closing in fifteen minutes, but the manager let them in anyway. He stayed open late all the time for the band during marching season and knew them all by name.

They sat in a circular booth and pigged out on pepperoni pizza rolls and cheese bread while the staff closed down around them, ignoring their giggling and no doubt hoping they’d leave soon.

“You two,” Miranda said to Elijah and Orli during a lull in the conversation, “are so cute together.”

“Aren’t they?” Liv laughed. “You should kiss for us.”

Elijah blushed, and Orli laughed. “You wish,” he teased Liv.

“Yeah,” she sighed.

Elijah’s blush grew deeper and spread down his neck.

“You’re very cute when you blush,” Orli whispered in his ear, completely aware that every eye at the table was on them.

“Shut up,” Elijah whispered back.

Orli took a slow, suggestive bite out of his pizza roll and winked at Elijah.

\-----

“So, I’m sure you had absolutely nothing to do with Billy being there tonight,” Dom commented as Elijah drove him home.

“I didn’t invite him,” Elijah answered honestly.

“Whatever.” Dom paused for a few seconds. “Thank you.”

Elijah grinned and peeled out as the light turned green.


	17. Chapter 17

Orli let himself into Elijah’s house. He listened a moment to the quiet, waiting to see if he heard the clatter that meant Elijah was in the kitchen. Nothing.

He sneaked toward Elijah’s bedroom, focused and trying not to think about what he was doing, anticipation a palpable force inside him. He poked his head into Elijah’s room, entering when he saw Elijah working on the computer at his small desk.

“Hey,” Elijah greeted him, with the smile that Orli was coming to recognize as his alone. It was smaller than Elijah’s usual smile, but it reached all the way to his eyes.

Orli shut Elijah’s bedroom door behind him and held up a paper, bouncing with excitement. Elijah’s eyes widened as he took in the thick red lines at the top. “An A?” Elijah jumped up from his desk chair. “You got an A?”

Orli nodded, beaming.

“Fucking awesome!” Elijah exclaimed, giving Orlando a triumphant and enthusiastic kiss that ended up with him trapped against the door, arms around Elijah’s neck, calculus test fluttering forgotten to the floor.

Orlando turned them, subtle and sure, until it was Elijah trapped against the door beneath Orli’s tongue and hands. He’d been so careful not to push Elijah, but if they spent one more night _just_ making out, Orli was going to go insane.

He sucked Elijah’s tongue into his mouth, laughing breathlessly at the muffled moan it caused. He leaned away, a wicked grin stretching thin lips.

“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever said thank you.” He pressed their hips together roughly, licking a warm stripe up Elijah’s neck before blowing on it, making him jerk. One hand traced down Elijah’s shoulder and back to settle on his waist, caressing the muscles with firm fingers.

“So… you want to sit or stand for your blowjob?”

“Oh, fuck.” Elijah’s knees gave out.

Orli supported the sudden weight, encouraged by Elijah’s glazed expression. “Sitting, then.” He shied away from the bed and set Elijah in his desk chair before kneeling down.

Orli’s splayed fingers felt their way up Elijah’s thighs. “Fuck,” Elijah said, finding his voice finally. “Orli, man.” Orli’s fingers paused, dark eyes gazing up at Elijah. “You don’t… you don’t have to.”

“Oh God, I want to,” Orli breathed fervently. His fingers crept up another inch. “I’ll stop if you tell me to.”

“No! No, I mean…” Elijah licked dry lips. “I want it.”

Orlando’s fingers tightened before moving up again, Orli’s eyes locked with Elijah.

Elijah’s breath shuddered out at the first craved touch on his denim covered hard on. Then Orli leaned forward, and Elijah felt warm breath, heard Orli take a deep breath through his nose. Orli’s fingers touched the tender skin at the waistband of Elijah’s jeans. The fingers converged on the fly of his jeans, thumbing the button through worn denim and quickly pulling down the zipper.

Orli sucked the tip of Elijah’s cock through boxer material, and Elijah moaned, lust roiling though his gut and up his spine until it reached the base of his brain, burning out any thought other than ‘fuck, yeah’ and igniting a hunger he didn’t even realize he’d been smothering.

Practiced hands eased his boxers and jeans down, and his hips lifted automatically to help.

“Elijah,” Orli said, and Elijah squirmed at the flow of air over his bare skin. “Lijah,” he repeated, relishing the reaction. Orli opened his mouth and closed the final gap between them, surrounding Elijah’s cock in smooth warmth.

Orlando flickered his tongue around the head to get a taste, then sucked gently, testing. Elijah’s hips stuttered up, a hoarse gasp breaking from his throat. Orli smiled, visible only in the creasing at the corners of his eyes.

He began moving and sucking harder, inching the cock in and out as he learned Elijah’s shape and feel, thumbs massaging thin skin on hips where his hands held Elijah steady.

“Orli,” Elijah gasped, nerves crackling everywhere Orli touched him. “Ah, feels so fucking good.” Sweat beaded his upper lip and temple, sensitizing his skin to the air. His voice cracked as Orli suddenly moved his head lower.

Orli was immersed in Elijah, in what his mouth and hands were telling him. His fingers were dark on Elijah’s skin, spit made Elijah’s cock gleam, and Orli’s jaw stretched just this side of painful.

Elijah arched over Orli’s head in his lap, pried his hands off the death grip they had on the armrests and hesitantly combed his fingers through Orli’s hair.

Orli moaned, vibrations forcing their way into Elijah’s skin and sending him over the edge. His hips fought to pump upward, and his grip on Orli’s hair tightened as he came, losing control completely.

He shuddered and fell limp into the chair. Orli released Elijah’s cock with a final lick, quite satisfied with the shattered sprawl of Elijah’s body.

Elijah lifted a shaking hand and traced Orli’s reddened lips. He wiping away a smear of come at the corner with a fingertip and raised it to his own lips, tasting Orli mingled with his come. Orlando kissed him, tongue probing at the finger still in his mouth. The taste was even stronger on Orli’s lips, and Elijah moved his hand to cup the back of Orli’s head, drawing him closer to kiss him deeply, taste himself at the back of Orli’s mouth.

Elijah slid off the chair, tipping Orli backwards until they were tangled on the floor, Orli’s erection firm against the crest of Elijah’s hip.

“What do you want?” Elijah asked, voice raw from pleasure.

“Just touch me, please,” Orli begged, rubbing against the pressure of Elijah’s body.

Elijah had to fight with Orli’s pants to get them open, blushing as he did so and thinking how much he needed to learn, wondering if he’d ever be as good as Orli at this.

He finally got his hand around Orli’s cock, holding him tight and starting a quick rhythm that made Orli’s entire body flex and bend with his hand. He concentrated on the pattern, adding twists and varying pressure, trying to give Orli as much pleasure as possible until the curl of Orli’s ear distracted him. He licked around the delicate folds and swirled his tongue inside on a slower, harder movement of his hand, and Orlando came, writhing beneath him.

“Shit,” Orli whispered, hollowed out with pleasure and still managing to twitch as Elijah licked the come from his hand with kitten flicks of his tongue, testing to see if they tasted the same.

Elijah hummed his agreement and then settled down with his head against Orli’s chest, tracing fingers over the smooth skin on Orli’s stomach. They rested like that until their breathing wasn’t quite so ragged.

“How’d you get in, anyway?” Elijah asked.

“Front door.”

Elijah smacked him. “Funny.”

“Ow,” he protested, even though it didn’t hurt. “I wasn’t kidding. It’s unlocked.”

“You just walked in?” Elijah asked, a touch incredulous.

“I fully intended to ambush you. Knocking would’ve ruined my plan.”

“What about my mom?”

“What about her?”

“She’s – shit! She’s home!”

Orli laughed at the horrified expression on Elijah’s face. “She’s always home.”

“She might have _heard_ us or… something,” he finished lamely. “You aren’t worried?”

Orli snorted. “About the woman who put condoms on your shopping list? Not really.”

Elijah smacked him again. “This is serious.”

“Fine. I’ll keep my hands and mouth to myself, then,” Orli told him, sounding unconcerned.

“No, I didn’t mean _that_!” Elijah exclaimed hurriedly, making Orli laugh. “Fucker,” Elijah added when he realized Orli was only joking.

“I can’t believe that Region Auditions are only two weeks away,” Orli said after a minute to distract Elijah, who was still freaking out.

“I know. And Thanksgiving is the week after that.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

“You don’t like Thanksgiving?”

“No, it’s the worst. I have to deal with my family, my mom goes crazy trying to make everything perfect, and we don’t even get presents.”

Elijah giggled. “Poor Orli.”

“Shut up.”

“Hmph. I normally like Thanksgiving, although this one might not be too good.”

“Why not?”

“Well, the last couple I’ve cooked like crazy, but I don’t know if I will because Mom hasn’t been eating very much, and I don’t want her to feel bad about me going through all that trouble.”

Orli intertwined their fingers and squeezed, unable to say anything to comfort him.

“And then Friday we normally go cut down a Christmas tree, but she isn’t going to be well enough to go this year, so I don’t know what we’ll do.”

“Cutting down a tree, wow. That sounds great. We have a fake one, and it doesn’t go up until Christmas Eve. My dad doesn’t like the decorations very much.”

“Oh, Mom loves them. She’ll sit in the living room much more and watch the lights.” Elijah smiled up at him. “She also loves when it gets cold enough to light the fire. She was on chemo two Christmases ago, and it was the only reason she left her room.”

“We should go get it for her.”

Elijah quirked an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“We’ll go get the tree for her since she can’t go, then she won’t have to miss out.”

“You’d do that?” Elijah asked, a funny catch to his voice.

“Yeah. It’ll be fun.”

Elijah kissed his gratitude for a long moment, ending with a smile.

“You’re the best, Orli.”

Orli’s eyes looked away from Elijah, shy and uncomfortable with the compliment. “Hold on,” he demanded, a thought occurring to him. “How were you planning on getting a Christmas tree in you car?”

Elijah laughed. “Last year we borrowed the superpickle.”

“Oh.”

“Dork.”

“Shut up.”

“Bleh. We have to get up.”

“Why?”

“I have to make dinner. And don’t you want to go put that A on your fridge?”

“Not really. We don’t put stuff on the fridge.”

“What!?” Elijah rolled off Orli and glanced around them for Orli’s test. It was half under his bed. “You are so deprived. C’mon.”

Orli laughed when Elijah almost made it out the door without redoing his pants. Orli fastened his own and followed Elijah down the hall to the kitchen, where he put the A on the top of the other papers and pictures.

“Congratulations, Orli!” Elijah cheered him, adding a bright yellow magnet with a flourish to keep the whole mess from falling.

“Thanks,” Orli said after a moment, not sure what to say.

“You earned it.” Orli leaned against the counter and watched as Elijah started wandering around the kitchen, gathering ingredients. “Oh, I almost forgot! I am under strict orders to find out if Billy’s said anything to anyone about Dom. He’s going crazier than usual trying to figure out if Billy likes him.”

Orli shrugged. “I don’t know if he likes him or not, but Miranda said he was impressed that Dom went an entire evening without being a complete jerk.”

“Well, that’s something. Probably not the answer Dom wants, but something.”

“Billy tends to keep things bottled up, as far as I can tell. He could be madly in love with Dom or hate him, but he won’t admit to either.”

“I’ll pass that on, too. If anyone could get him to crack, it’d be Dom.”

“If they do go out, they’ll be the weirdest couple.”

“Weirder than us?” Elijah asked, smirking as he unearthed a pot from the cabinets on the floor.

“Yeah, way weirder than us. We’re perfect.”

Elijah rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “Yeah. Perfect.”


	18. Chapter 18

Orli had the nicest hands Elijah had ever seen.

Not that he’d given hands much thought before. His own were calloused and bitten and too small. Useful, of course, but completely unattractive.

Orli’s, however, were wonderful. They were tanned from hours of marching and strong and flexible. Elijah watched Orli’s fingers fly along his clarinet as he ran through one of the region pieces they had to perform in a few days. So much skill and muscle memory to use all those tiny keys. Elijah would definitely stick to his valves, thanks.

And the way Orli’s hands felt, well, Elijah couldn’t even think of that without a shiver seeping down his spine.

The song ended on a high note, which, quite unexpectedly, squeaked. Orli’s lips released the mouthpiece, and he let out a frustrated breath. “This reed is going bad,” he told Elijah, scowling at the slip of wood that had misbehaved.

“It sounded great until the squeak, though,” Elijah complimented.

Orli shrugged. “It’s not quite smooth at this tempo. And I keep missing the octave jumps.”

Elijah smiled. “You’ll get it.” And Orli would. There was not a doubt in Elijah’s mind. That was another thing he’d found out while watching Orli practice: Orli was good. No, really, he was _good_. He was in a completely different league than the other clarinets, maybe even the rest of the band. It gave Elijah a small, warm pit of pride in his stomach every time he thought about it. His boyfriend was fucking amazing.

“My dad’s not going to buy me another reed, either,” Orli noted bitterly. “He threw a fit when I asked him to replace the one that broke last month.” He pulled his case into his lap and started disassembling his clarinet. “I’ll have to talk to Mr. Astin about it.”

Elijah made a face.

“Yes, I know you don’t like him, but he gets me reeds sometimes. The perk of having a clarinet player for a band director. And he hasn’t yelled at you for at least a week, you know. When you behave, he ignores you, you idiot.”

Elijah thought about it and was shocked to discover that Orli was right, and Orli hid a smile at the expression on his face.

“So why aren’t you practicing?”

“Like I can improve perfection,” Elijah scoffed, then grinned as Orli rolled his eyes. “I have it as good as I need it to be. I don’t actually want to get picked.”

“Why not?” Orli asked, startled. Not wanting to do as good as possible in music was a foreign concept to him.

“Well, I don’t want to have to do the concert and all that. But I’m better than all the other trumpets, which is the only requirement I have.”

“Weirdo,” Orli accused, but didn’t push further. He knew Elijah didn’t like events that took him away from his mom in the evenings.

“Yeah, but what does that say about you, Mr. I’m-dating-a-weirdo?”

“You’re right, it’s crazy. I’ll have to break up with you this instant.”

Elijah pouted at him, and Orli had to resist the urge to give him a kiss right then and there where anyone could see.

“Come on,” Orli said quickly to distract himself. “You can help me with our math homework when I’m done talking to him.”

“Have you still not done that?” Elijah chided as he followed Orli out of the practice room, smiling to let Orli know he was only teasing.

“ _I_ never claimed to be perfect,” Orli retorted.

“Yeah, so few can live up to my standards.”

Orli smacked the back of his head.

But not too hard.

\-----

Economics had to be the suckiest class ever. It wasn’t that it was difficult, because it wasn’t. It was just stupid. Stupid and boring. Elijah couldn’t care less.

He’d been managing his and his mom’s money for two years now, and before that he’d been helping. That was all the economics Elijah needed, thank you very fucking much.

He huffed in frustration, mind miles away and still ranting as he entered the bathroom.

A hand caught him and pulled him into a stall as he passed. He struggled, arms flying, until the door was swung shut and he was able to twist around and see his kidnapper.

Orli seemed amused at Elijah’s reaction, one hand still firmly caught in Elijah’s shirt, and he stopped fighting immediately.

“Shit, Orli,” he complained in a low tone, “You scared the fuck of me.”

Orli smirked at him, a dangerous expression he’d never seen before, one that made his brain go cold and his body burn hot. Orli pressed close, hands firm on Elijah’s hips. “Well, that won’t do,” he returned in the same low voice, and shoved one hand down the front of Elijah’s pants.

Elijah’s breath escaped in a single frantic gust, and then the bathroom door opened.

Footsteps echoed in the small room, then paused, and the sound of a zip going down seemed louder than it should. Elijah was too afraid to even breath, his hands locked tight around Orli’s upper arms. If the guy out there noticed that there were two sets of feet in this stall…

Orli’s fingers twitched downward, searching, and Elijah pulled in a desperate breath through his mouth, as quietly as possible. He shouldn’t still be hard, knowing as he did that there was someone out there, but he could feel Orli’s breath against his ear and neck, Orli’s body warm against the cold terror in Elijah’s.

He heard a flush and footsteps and, finally, the door open and shut, and he sagged against the wall behind him in relief. Orli’s body was shaking lightly in what Elijah was fairly sure was laughter. “Bastard,” he hissed, but it didn’t hold much anger.

Orli’s only answer was to undo Elijah’s pants and free his dick. He kissed and licked at the sensitive skin on Elijah’s neck as he began to pull him off, sure strokes that had Elijah arching into his hands. It didn’t take long for Elijah to be just there, poised to come. Orli dropped to his knees and took Elijah in his mouth, and with one strong suck, Elijah came, desperately choking back a cry.

Licking his lips, Orli pulled back and grinned. It was cleaner that way, and looking at the sweat beading on Elijah’s temples, more effective. He stood and kissed Elijah deeply.

“What the fuck was that?” Elijah asked when they broke apart, a bit dazed.

“What do you think?” Orli returned, amused.

“How did you find me, anyway?” Elijah asked. He couldn’t for the life of him figure it out, although his lapse might have been from the loss of brain function due to extreme pleasure.

“I have my ways,” Orli informed him archly, with no intention of telling Elijah how predictable he was. He always went to the bathroom to get out of economics.

Elijah snorted. “Yeah, alright. So is it your turn then?” Elijah asked, reaching out.

“No, no time. I have to get back to class. But believe me, I’ll see you later,” Orli whispered against his ear, and the promise in his voice sent aftershocks rumbling through Elijah, and then Orli stepped out of the stall and calmly left.

Elijah stayed propped up against the wall, knees weak and hands trembling. “Shit, that was hot.”

He pushed off the wall and headed out of the stall to try and compose himself for class, which was still, unfortunately, fucking economics.

\-----

“Sitting with me again? Shocking.” Liv tucked dark hair behind her ears. “The popular crowd just not doing it for you?”

Elijah sighed. “I just can’t deal with them today.” He picked up his fork and poked at the chicken on his tray.

“You’re a better man than I,” she commented lightly. “I can’t deal with them ever.”

“I know.”

“You should eat that,” Liv scolded as he continued to push his food around. “Imagine what your mom would say if I told her _you_ weren’t eating, after all the crap you’ve given her about it.”

Elijah grimaced. “I’m just not hungry today.”

“No, you’re incredibly mopey. Out with it, then. What’s bothering you?”

Elijah shook his head, an instinctive refusal to talk about it.

“Is it about Orli?”

Elijah shrugged. Not exactly, Liv took that to mean.

“You’re not making this easy, you know.” That earned her a glare. “Alright, let me make a stab at it. It’s obviously about sex, because you’re embarrassed to talk about it. And I know something happened because Orli’s been prancing around like the cat that got the cream.” Elijah looked incredibly uncomfortable, but didn’t deny it. “So, what, was it horrible or something?”

“No, of course not,” Elijah refused emphatically.

“Ah, he speaks. So, you’re upset because something happened with Orli, and it was unbelievably good? That’s ridiculous.”

Elijah scowled. “No, it’s not that.” He fidgeted under her focused gaze for a second before cracking. “Look, it’s just, he knows exactly what he’s doing! I feel like a complete idiot when we… And I’ve only done it once, and it was with a _girl_ , and it was absolutely _horrible_ , and… what if I’m just no good at that kind of… stuff?”

He was red with embarrassment after his outburst, but also seemed relieved. She stared at him thoughtfully while he returned to molesting his food.

“First of all,” Liv told him gently, “You should talk to Orli about all this. It’s obviously a big deal to you, and Orli would want to know. And his answer would no doubt make you feel better as I’m sure he doesn’t care one bit about how much experience you have. He’d just be concerned that you were feeling so badly about yourself.

“Secondly, Elijah, have you considered that sex with a girl might have been so ‘absolutely horrible’ because you aren’t _attracted to girls_?”

A shocked silence greeted that remark. “Um, no. I didn’t think about it like that.”

“I didn’t think so.” Elijah still looked a little dazed. Liv rolled her eyes. Men. “You need to talk to Orli about this.”

“Right.”

“I’m serious.”

“No doubt.”

“If you don’t talk to him about it, I’ll tell him myself.”

Elijah squeaked. “You _wouldn’t_.”

“Try me, precious.”

He scowled at her, but she just smiled back sweetly. “Fine, I’ll talk to him. But only if you promise not to get involved.”

“Deal.”

“I actually came over here to ask you something else,” he said, pushing his overcooked green beans into a pool of ketchup.

“Hmm?”

“Can I borrow the superpickle the day after Thanksgiving again? Orli and I are going to get a Christmas tree.”

He was obviously expecting her to make some kind of remark about that, and while she really wanted to, she merely replied, “Of course.”

She’d squee about it to Miranda later.

For now… “You know, if you want to tell me about what happened with Orli, I’d listen,” she offered casually.

He gave her a suspicious look. “That’s alright, thanks.”

“Suit yourself,” she replied, hiding her disappointment.


	19. Chapter 19

Ugh, his arm was numb. Very, very numb. Elijah tried to move his fingers, and they made a vague flopping motion. He groaned and rolled over onto his back, his functional arm hitting something as he moved. Probably fell asleep with the computer on again. Unwillingly, he cracked open an eye. Orli was propped up and staring at him, backlit by the lamp on his desk. He closed his eye, counted to ten, and looked again. Nope, not a fantasy. Orli was still there.

He glanced at the clock. 11:30 pm. “It’s late.”

“Mmhmm,” Orli agreed. “We fell asleep.”

Right. They’d been reading for English. Well, that definitely explained it. Those books put him to sleep every time. “You weren’t asleep.”

“I was for a while,” Orli told him. Elijah glanced at him, and Orli was definitely staring at him.

“Why are you looking at me?” Elijah asked, covering his face with his numb arm, causing a wave of pins and needles.

“You’re just so cute,” Orli explained, the smile evident in his tone even though Elijah couldn’t see it.

“I’m not cute,” Elijah argued. “I have pillow creases on my face and a zit the size of Africa on my chin.”

Orli laughed. “It’s not the size of Africa. New Zealand, maybe, but not Africa.”

“Definitely Africa. It’s trying to take over my face. And then, the world!”

“Your zit is bent on world domination?” Orli asked with a grin.

“Yup. You should hear it. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ it asks, and the clogged pore next to it that would be a zit if only it was smart enough to figure out how replies, ‘I think so, but will those squirting flowers be as funny as the rubber chickens and whoppie cushions?’” Elijah suddenly realized what he was saying, and stole a peak at Orli’s somewhat incredulous face. “Um,” he said, blushing.

“You know, sometimes I forget why you and Dom get along, and then you say something like that.” He shrugged. “Hey, I know. I’ll give you a hickie the size of Eurasia, and then no one will even notice the zit.”

He dived for Elijah’s neck and started biting and licking, just to tease, but Elijah immediately tensed up, practically flinching away.

Orli backed off instantly. “Alright, no hickie, sorry.”

“Um, no, not that, I just—although that would be hard to explain.”

“Not to anyone who knows,” Orli argued.

“Yeah.” Elijah didn’t say anything else, trying not to feel as uncomfortable as he felt.

Eventually, Orli broke the silence. “So. Is this about what Liv was making you tell me?”

Elijah gaped at him. “ _What?_ She told you?” He was turning increasingly darker shades of red. “I’m gonna kill her.”

"She didn't tell me, just mentioned her threat in passing." Orli smiled and leaned in to kiss Elijah’s cheek, lips cool against his flushed skin. “What is it, precious?” Orli asked, watching the red spread to Elijah’s neck.

“You don’t seem too worried.”

“Liv wasn’t really concerned.” He frowned, refocusing on Elijah’s face. “Should I be worried?”

“No?”

Orli sighed and laid down beside Elijah, one hand stroking over the cotton covered muscles of Elijah’s stomach. “You can tell me anything, you know. I like you a crazy amount.”

“It’s stupid,” Elijah warned him, but Orli just waited, quiet. “I just totally don’t know what I’m doing, with you. With guys, I mean. And I worry, well, not _worry_ , but i-it’s, like, I feel bad t-that, for you, and I--”

“Elijah,” Orli said, stopping him. Elijah risked a glance, and he seemed amused. “Please breathe.” Elijah huffed out the air he’d been holding, and drew another slowly.

“Listen,” Orli requested and paused a second to make sure he had Elijah’s attention, “I don’t care about that at all. In fact,” he added emphatically, cutting off a protest, “It’s hot, knowing that I’m the only guy who’s ever touched you, or kissed you, or been this close to you.” He shifted closer until his lips formed the words directly into Elijah’s ear, and Elijah shivered at the sensation, the heat of humiliation beginning to give way for another, more urgent heat.

“And I am so looking forward to teaching you about sex, Elijah,” Orli continued in a low voice that Elijah had never heard before and traveled straight to his groin. “I think about it when I jerk off, about you exploring my body, experimenting.”

Elijah managed to choke out, “Experimenting?”

“Mhmm,” Orli agreed. “You can do anything to me.” Orli’s lips brushed against his ear, as gentle and arousing as his words. “Touch me, Elijah. Do whatever you want.”

Elijah lifted himself up on one elbow so that he was looking down at Orli, helpless but to obey. The fingers of his free hand traced over the curve of Orli’s jaw and down his throat, feeling Orli’s pulse flutter against his fingertips. This was familiar territory, however, and Elijah moved on quickly, finger the skin at the edge of Orli’s t-shirt. “Take it off,” Elijah demanded, and was shocked to hear his voice come out as low and provocative as Orli’s.

He had to move to the side as Orli sat up quickly and tore the shirt over his head before lying back down. His obvious eagerness quelled any linger doubt Elijah had, discarded for more important emotions, like awe and lust as he was presented with so much of Orli’s skin.

He traced over the tan line that cut across Orli’s bicep, a reminder of the sweat and sun from months of marching. His fingers followed the strong curve of shoulder and caressed over collarbones. Elijah leaned down and pressed his lips to the hollow at the base of the throat like he had imagined doing so many times before, and Orli groan in gratitude when he licked and sucked gently.

Elijah spent several minutes there, but was surprise to see a light bruise there when he pulled away because he hadn’t been trying to mark. Orli’s breathing was ragged, causing his chest to rise and fall unevenly. Elijah pressed against the tense muscles, passing over them to find a nipple, which was already tight. He swirled his fingers around it, drawing a whimper from Orli. Leaning forward, Elijah blew on the dark circle, all the while looking up at Orli, whose eyes were wide and almost black with arousal, taking in every detail of what Elijah was doing.

Elijah grinned and moved on, ignoring the disappointed groan that caused. He sat up so that he could use both arms, and caressed and massaged all along Orli’s torso, learning the play of muscles and the reactions his touch caused: a giggle at the second rib that turned into a gasp when more pressure was applied, a moan when he ran his thumbs over both nipples, twitches as his fingertips ran over Orli’s flat stomach, and the full body shudder that occured when Elijah scooped his pinkie into the tiny dip of Orli’s belly button.

His hands drifted over the soft skin before finding their way lower and onto rough denim. Orli cried out as Elijah stroked over the hardness he found at the crotch of Orli’s jeans, pushing the material taut.

The sound of the zipper was muffled by heavy breathing, and Elijah took in Orli’s flushed face and the sweat beading at his temples and then tugged the fabric down to mid thigh. He paused, waiting until Orli’s whole body was rigid with tension before rubbing his thumb over the very tip of Orli’s cock.

“Oh, fuck,” Orli gasped at the touch, which was enough encouragement for Elijah to wrap his hand firmly around the shaft and start to jerk Orli off. Orli’s cock was longer than his own, and the color was more muted, a deep red that approached but didn’t reach the purplish color Elijah’s turned when hard. He started out with the rhythm he liked to use on himself and tried several others before he found the pull-twist-squeeze that had Orli pumping his hips in an effort to get more, faster, now.

The feel of Orli in his hand was amazing, and he was so turned on he could hardly breathe. He wasn’t satisfied, though, and his mouth watered as he imagined how Orli’s dick would feel in his mouth, lips wrapped around it, and even though Orli was close to coming, Elijah suddenly leaned down and took him in his mouth, unable to wait.

Orli _screamed_ when Elijah closed his mouth around the tip and, even trying desperately to prolong it, came within twenty seconds. Elijah choked as come flooded his mouth, but managed to swallow most of it, some dripping back down the sides of Orli’s shaft. He pulled back and licked at a spot.

Orli’s hand in his hair pulled his head up for a kiss, tongue reaching inside with practiced ease for a taste. Elijah moved until he was arched over Orli and opened his fly one-handed, kissing Orli and jerking off at the same time. The hand not tangled in his hair slipped down and wrapped around Elijah’s, entwining their fingers so that they were sliding together. Orli’s teeth bit into Elijah’s bottom lip, and Elijah’s back arched, and he came, cry swallowed by Orli’s mouth, come drenching Orli’s stomach.

Elijah collapsed back down to his side, breaking the kiss to fill his lungs with air, lightheaded with pleasure. Orli trailed his fingers through the come on his stomach before sucking it off one finger. The sight caused a shiver as desire streaked through Elijah, and he kissed Orli, who had two fingers already in his mouth. Come smeared on Elijah’s cheek as that hand transferred from Orli’s mouth to Elijah’s face, and Orli licked it off when the kiss ended.

Orli cleaned off with a corner of the sheet and pulled his pants back up. Elijah felt boneless and spent, his heart rate just beginning to settle after several long minutes.

“Still worried, then?” Orli asked, his voice sounding the tiniest bit hoarse.

“Not so much.” Elijah managed to get out, honestly feeling too sated to worry about anything.

“Good, because that was fucking fantastic.” Orli shifted closer until they were curled up together, one hand slipping beneath the Elijah’s t-shirt to rest against the bare skin of his back.


	20. Chapter 20

Oh, Orli was tired. Tired like most people never experience. Band had a way of draining every last bit of your energy away until you moved and felt like the living dead.

Now granted, region wasn’t exactly on par with hours of marching practice on black concrete in the middle of summer, but sitting in a tiny classroom for 8 hours while listening to 57 clarinets repeatedly play the same couple of songs could honestly be considered one of the deeper levels of hell as far as Orli was concerned. Especially as most of the clarinet players sucked. Especially since he’d had to sit on the floor until his ass and back were sore. And not, as Dom had joked, in a good way.

He’d made it, though, first chair in his room. He had to go back on Saturday for the second round (there’d been three rooms of clarinets), but he knew he’d make it into the region band. He had for the last two years, and he’d improved since last year.

It was hours after midnight, but Elijah had only just dropped him off, talking on the way home about how he’d been in a math classroom with the number pi on a border on the wall and how he probably had 50 digits memorized now, because it had been _that boring_. Elijah hadn’t made the second cut, but he’d placed higher than all the other trumpets from their school, and Orli knew that was just what Elijah wanted. This way he wouldn’t have to spend all Saturday away from his mom.

Orli unlocked the front door, not surprised that the porch light was off. He stepped into the dark and made his way quietly into his room, for once managing not to trip over anything.

He flipped on the lights of his room, dropped his backpack on the floor, looked up, and—

“AHH!”

His mother was sitting on the edge of his bed. “Orlando,” she said serenely, as if she was meeting him for the first time at some social event and not scaring the shit out of him at 2:45 in the morning.

“Mom.” He drew a deep breath and tried to get his heart to start again. “What are you doing in here?”

“Where have you been?”

Orlando stared at her blankly. “Are you serious?”

“I hardly ever see you any more, Orli. Are you even living at home?”

“Living at—” Orli chocked off, his teeth clenching in anger as she realized she was serious. “Of course I’m living at home. Unless you’ve kicked me out and I’m accidentally trespassing. In which case, please let me know so I can go. I don’t need a criminal record.”

“Don’t you take that tone with me, Orlando Bloom. I haven’t seen you in days! You didn’t come home last night. Your little sister asked me where you were tonight, and I couldn’t tell her!”

“Mom, tonight was region band. It’s on the band calendar of events. On the fridge. Where I put it in August.”

She watched him sternly for a minute but nodded. “Alright. But what about all the other nights, Orlando? You haven’t made it to dinner in weeks. And you’ve been skipping the youth functions at church.”

“I’ve been studying with Elijah. You know, passing Calculus with a B average? Not that I think Dad even cared. He didn’t say anything after checking to make sure I didn’t fail like he expected.”

“That’s not good enough. No one studies that much, Orlando. Your father’s beginning to think that there’s something going on between you and that Elijah boy.” Her frown was made of either disapproval or disgust, Orli couldn’t tell. “He’s going to ground you and keep you from seeing him.”

“ _What?_ He can’t! I really will fail Calculus. That is so like him to demand I do something, but take away any chance I have of—”

“Tell me what’s going on!” His mother interrupted, her face hard, her high voice almost yelling. They were going to wake up the whole house, he thought faintly, staring at her.

He couldn’t lie and tell his mother that he wasn’t involved with Elijah. It was the smart thing to do, and he thought that Lij would understand, but the words were lost in his mouth. There was really only one thing he could say, though he didn’t want to, hated to give them this.

Hopefully Lij would understand this, too.

“His mother has cancer,” Orli said finally, unhappily.

“What?” His mom demanded, shocked by a completely unexpected answer.

“Elijah’s mom is dying of cancer. I’ve been helping with dinner and some of the other chores. We do our homework together. I helped him get groceries the other day. I’ve just tried to… be there for them.”

“What kind of cancer?” His mother asked, and Orli could have wept with relief at the concern and sorrow in her voice.

“Elijah doesn’t really talk about it. I know that there’s nothing the doctors can do for her.”

“Perhaps we should invited them to Thanksgiving. They shouldn’t be alone.”

“Actually, Liv’s father is going to be out of town, so Liv and her mom are going to be over there with them. They invited me, too, but I said I had to be here at home.” He took care not to hesitate when he called it that.

“Well. We’ll see. I could use your help, but I don’t see why you can’t join them after dinner.”

Orli nodded, knowing that was probably going to be as good as it got. It was certainly more than he’d been expecting.

His mother got up, kissing his cheek as she passed.

“Mom?” She paused in the doorway, looking back at him. “Should I explain to Dad in the morning?”

“Leave your father to me,” she said firmly, giving him a sad smile. “Goodnight, Orlando.”

“Goodnight,” he replied automatically as she shut his door.

He collapsed onto his bed, utterly wiped. Even still, he expected to stay awake and worry for a while, but surprised himself and drifted off to sleep where he had fallen, still dressed.

\-----

Elijah nudged the leg nearest him but kept his eyes on whatever game he was playing now. “Hey, don’t you have to go home?”

“Hmm?” Orli moved his arm and looked around. He’d almost fallen asleep. “What time is it?”

“Nine.”

“I’ll go in a minute.”

“You don’t have to, but you’re normally worried about being home too late. I guess your parents are finally getting off your back, though, huh? You’ve been around a lot more this week.” Elijah glanced at him, before continuing. “It’s nice.”

The warm, relaxed mood he’d been in was promptly sucked away and replaced by worry in the pit of his stomach.

“Uh, yeah, Lij. About that.”

Elijah paused the game and turned to him, eyebrows raised.

“After you dropped me off after region last week, my mom kinda ambushed me.”

“Kinda ambushed you?”

“Yeah. She asked me if I was still living at home.”

Elijah frowned. “That’s crazy. You go home all the time. You’ve just been practicing a lot for region.”

Orli shrugged. “She said they never knew where I was, and that they hardly ever saw me. She asked me point blank if I was seeing you.” Orli expected a reaction, but Elijah just waited, still frowning. “She said my dad was going to ground me and keep me from spending time with you. I tried to lie to her, Lij, I did, but I just couldn’t—couldn’t do it, but I had to say something, so I’m really sorry, but I told her about your mom.”

Elijah winced and looked away.

“I just—just didn’t know what else to do, and I knew that she would understand that, and I was panicking a little. I know you’re probably really angry. I shouldn’t have told her.” Elijah still wasn’t looking at him. “I’m really sorry.”

“I can’t.” The words were clipped. Elijah sighed and turned back to him. “I just can’t talk about it.” His jaw clenched, and he paused a moment before continuing, “As long as she keeps letting you come over.”

“She will now. But I shouldn’t have told her, Lij. I’m sorry.”

Elijah shook his head. “It’s fine. It’s not like it’s a secret. I just don’t… deal well with it.”

Orli didn’t look like he believed that, so Elijah leaned over and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and Orli leaned into the touch so that their sides were pressed together. “I’m not angry,” he said, kissing one high cheekbone. “Don’t be upset.”

“Okay,” Orli said and moved so that Elijah could reach his lips, letting it go so that Elijah wouldn’t have to reassure him anymore.

\-----

Orli vacuumed. And dusted. And mopped. And washed and cooked and cleaned until he couldn’t help but feel a bit like Cinderella. He hummed the Disney tune under his breath until his mom gave him a suspicious look.

He set up the coffee pot so it’d be ready later and winced as he heard deep laughter coming from the living room. He didn’t mind cooking so long as it kept him in another room than his uncle, who was in town again for the holiday.

“Orli, would you sort out the rolls, please?” his mother asked.

Orli nodded, watching as she pulled sweet potatoes covered in marshmallows from the oven. His mom had been incredibly supportive once they’d talked, convincing his dad to leave him alone, so he didn’t begrudge her all the work. His little sister flitted about setting the table. She’d probably be doing Orli’s job next year, finally old enough to take on more responsibilities, while Orli’d be too old to do what was considered women’s work.

He smiled at the thought of what Elijah would say about cooking being women’s work.

Finally, the food was all set out, and the whole family gathered around the table, the initial appreciative comments giving way to silence as plates and mouths became full.

“So, Orlando,” his uncle said finally, a malicious edge to his voice. “Your father tells me you’re doing well in school.”

Orlando glanced at him before fixing his eyes down on his plate. He’d been an idiot to think he’d get out of this confrontation. “Well enough, thank you.”

“Well enough,” he repeated. “You’d probably be doing better if you weren’t nancing around with that clarinet of yours and spending so much time in the kitchen.” He made both things sound vaguely dirty.

“Helping my mom, you mean? I’ll help her if she needs it.” He made sure his voice was respectfully quiet, but still firm.

“What she _needs_ is a real son, not some flaming faggot!” his uncle roared back, temper spiking when Orli dared to talk back.

“Michael, please. It’s Thanksgiving, and—”

“Now, now, dear,” his father interrupted his mom. Orli started counting the peas on his plate. “Michael has a right to express his opinions.”

His mom quieted down, but her bearing spoke loudly of her displeasure.

“Don’t worry,” Micheal reassured her magnanimously. “I won’t ruin your wonderful dinner. He’s not worth it. Besides,” he sneered, “What more can I possibly say?”

Hopefully nothing, Orli thought as he reached 54 peas, and kept his eyes on his plate and his mouth shut as his brother accidentally diffused the tension by spilling the gravy all over the freshly washed tablecloth.

The rest of dinner passed uneventfully, but Orli hardly ate, and what he did choke down tasted like sand. He couldn’t wait to get out of there.

It felt like forever, but he was soon putting the food away in the fridge as his mother and sister washed dishes. When the kitchen looked presentable again, his mother swept over to him.

“You’re welcome to go now, Orlando. Thank you for all your help.” She offered him a weak smile, and Orli could see how much his uncle’s words had hurt her, too. “I heard Liv saying that she and her mom would be sleeping over, and if Elijah’s mom doesn’t mind, you have my permission to stay the night as well.”

He smiled at her, grateful for her maneuvering to keep him and his uncle apart. “Thank you.”

She nodded, and then after a small hesitation, added, “Be discrete.”

“Liv’s going to pick me up,” he replied, understanding her meaning all too clearly, and went upstairs to call her where no one would hear.

\-----

Orli was still shaking with reaction when Liv pulled up to Elijah’s house. She’d taken one look at him when he climbed into the Superpickle and peeled out of there as fast as possible. Neither one of them had said a word.

They walked up to the door where Elijah was waiting for them. Liv went on into the house, leaving them alone on the small porch.

Elijah examined him for a moment before wrapping him close in a hug. Orli fell into it immediately, burying his face in Elijah’s neck, leaning into Elijah heavily so that he had to shift his weight to keep them from falling.

A sob wrenched its way out of his chest, and he felt a few tears soak into Elijah’s shirt before he was able to control himself. The embrace lasted several long minutes as Orli drew strength and comfort from Elijah, who simply held him as long as he needed.

Finally, he pulled back, wiping impatiently at his cheeks.

“You want me to kill them?” Elijah questioned, only halfway joking.

Orli gave him a wry smile. “No. It’d be way more trouble than it’s worth. But thank you.” He wiped his face one last time.

Elijah nodded. “You probably aren’t hungry since you already had dinner, but we made you a plate.”

He sniffed. “Are you kidding? I hardly ate anything.”

“Oh, thank god. I made _way_ too much food.” He looked so relieved that Orli had to laugh, albeit weakly. “I’m serious! I don’t think it’ll all fit in the fridge.”

Orli rolled his eyes at the exaggeration.

“And an absolute ton of devilled eggs. Mom said I was crazy.”

Orli smiled, genuinely, feeling balanced again. “I love devilled eggs.”

“I know,” Elijah smirked.

Orli moved to head into the house, but was stopped by a hand on his arm. Elijah stepped close and pressed their lips together, a gentle, shallow kiss that still sent a shiver down Orli’s spine.

FLASHCLICK.

They jumped apart as if scalded, eyes whipping to the open front door where Liv stood with a camera in hand, looking incredibly smug.

Orli took one look at his boyfriend’s thunderous expression and burst out laughing.

“Give me that!” Elijah yelled, and Liv promptly shoved the camera down her shirt into her bra.

Elijah was taken aback for a second, but then advanced again, determined.

“One more step, and the camera will go into my pants!” Liv threatened.

With a disgusted face, Elijah sighed in defeat. “If that picture turns up _anywhere_ …”

“It’s for my private collection,” Liv told him haughtily, offended that he thought she’d do such a think.

Disturbed and not wanting to pursue that further, Elijah turned to Orli, who was red with laughter. “Come on, then. Let’s get you fed.”


	21. Chapter 21

"Elijah!" Liv snapped. "If you remind me about one more thing that I can eat while you're gone, I'm going to barf all over you." Elijah shut his mouth. "Now, I'm loaning you the Superpickle on the condition that Orli drives. It's not negotiable," she added as Elijah started to argue. "I want both of you to come back in one piece. Other than that, have fun." She handed Orli the keys. Elijah rolled his eyes.

They climbed into the car as Liv went inside.

"You have the directions, right?" Orli asked as he backed slowly out of the driveway.

"Yeah. But I know where it is. It's a little less than an hour once we're out of the city." His fingers fiddled with the heater and then the radio.

"Your mom's fine," Orli said, thinking he understood the likely cause of Elijah's fidgets.

"I know," Elijah sighed. He picked up Liv's cd collection. "She'll probably sleep the whole time we're gone. I just hate leaving without saying goodbye. I always try to say goodbye."

"Surprising her with a Christmas tree will be worth it," Orli reassured him. "And Liv and her mom are there."

"Yeah," Elijah said. He found an artist he approved of - although how he picked his music was still a mystery to Orli - and popped it in. Then he found a discarded gum wrapper and began to shred it into tiny little pieces.

"You're still fidgeting," Orli observed.

Elijah's fingers stopped. "Sorry." A second later his right leg started to bounce gently.

Orli's mouth twisted up in amusement. "Are you just worried or is it something else?" There was a long hesitation. "Both, then?" Orli guessed before Elijah found an answer.

He grinned wryly. "That obvious, huh?"

"Pretty much," Orli laughed. "You're getting all awkward and quiet, which is a big hint."

"I know, I'm just so good at being awkward," Elijah said. He was laughing it off as a joke, but Orli could tell he was serious.

"I think... I think relationships just are," Orli commented. "All of mine have been, especially at first. You have to want the relationship bad enough to work through it, I guess. So then you have two options. Kick me to the curb-"

"Not even," Elijah said flatly, as if nothing like that had even crossed his mind. Orli tried and failed not to smile warmly at that.

"Or tell me what's bothering you," he finished after a minute.

"Mom has an appointment at the hospital next week," Elijah blurted out. "I was hoping you'd go with us."

"Sure," Orli said automatically, frowning slightly at the unexpected and easy request.

"And get tested with me."

"Tested?" Orli asked, frown morphing into confusion. "Tested for wha- Oh." He blinked.

"I'm probably just being stupid," Elijah started rambling, voice pitched slightly higher than normal and cheeks turning dark red. "I have spent way too much time in waiting rooms with the pamphlets, oh god, the pamphlets, you don't even want to know."

"I think it's a good idea," Orli interjected, but Elijah seemed not to hear him.

"The risks go way up if your gay, statistically speaking, and I just want to be safe and... What?"

"I think it's a good idea," Orli repeated. "Then your mom won't have to worry about putting condoms on the shopping list."

Elijah just stared at him as if he couldn't decide if that was a joke or not until Orli cracked and started giggling. "Shut up," Elijah said with a huff. "I'm being serious here."

"Right, yes, serious business," Orli deadpanned as he tried to sober up. Elijah gave him a suspicious look. "I didn't think you, ah, needed to get, um. Tested."

Elijah crossed his arms and looked out the window. "I'm not a complete virgin," he explained, looking extremely put out. "There were girls before Mom... you know. But I only slept with one of them."

Orli debated with himself for a long moment, then asked, "Was it Liv?"

"God, no!" Elijah exclaimed. "Are you kidding? She'd have killed me dead if I'd slept with her and then broken up with her." Elijah shuddered at the clear mental image he had of this happening, and Orli couldn't help laughing. Elijah punched him in the arm. "Shut up. No. I don't think we'd still be friends if we had. Anyway, it only happened once, and I didn't know her that well. You don't know her at all, by the way. She transferred to Drake because they had a better track program. It was awful, which Liv recently explained to me in excruciating detail how that should have been one of many giant, neon signs that I was gay."

Orli snorted, having no trouble imagining how such a conversation would go. "I've only slept with one person, too."

" _What_?" Elijah gasped.

"What?" Orli demanded.

"Only one person?" Elijah asked incredulously.

"I'm sorry. Do I come across as that big of a whore?" Orli frowned, turning the Superpickle with perhaps a tad too much force.

"No," Elijah said immediately. "No, of course not. You just seem very... experienced. Confident," he supplied quickly, as if he was afraid the first word would offend. "I just assumed. Sorry."

Orli sniffed, but nodded. He let Elijah stew for a minute before adding, "You can ask. I can hear your brain turning from over hear."

"Who was it?" Elijah said immediately, as if he'd been keeping the question inside from force of will alone.

"David." Orli said. Elijah gave him a blank look. Orli rolled his eyes. "Wenham? David Wenham? He played baritone. Moved away about a year ago. Ringing any bells?"

"Daisy?" Elijah asked in sudden recognition.

Orli gave him a dark look. "I'd forgotten that you called him that. What was that song you made up? The Daisy in the Bloom?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah," Elijah mumbled, looking away.

"Sorry," Orli said after a moment.

"Why are you sorry?" Elijah asked, nose crumpling up in confusion.

"I shouldn't throw that stuff in your face."

"I kinda deserve it a lot."

"Probably. But I think we're past it, don't you?"

"Mostly," Elijah agreed. "I hope."

"Yeah. So it's not fair to throw it in your face like that."

Elijah shrugged. "It's bound to come up every now and then. We seem to do alright."

"Yeah," Orli said again, smiling. "We do."

\-----

"Are those tractors?"

"Yeah. You take a hay ride out to the tree field."

"Hay ride? Tree field?"

Elijah snorted. "You do remember that we were coming to cut down a Christmas tree, right?"

"Of course I do..." He trailed off as they past a small petting zoo, complete with a small, run-down manger scene.

"Come on," Elijah laughed. "I promise I won't let Nature get you."

"I do hate Nature," Orli agreed weakly as they got in the short line waiting to climb on the hay ride.

"My mom always says that my dad would sing Christmas carols during the ride," Elijah told him in a low undertone, effectively distracting Orli from the (most likely infested) hay he was sitting on. "Loudly and without any concern for the other passengers. She says I get all my musical talent from him because she can't carry a tune in a bucket."

"Music and the ability to annoy other people while being in the spotlight. It all becomes clear..." Orli teased.

Elijah laughed. "I hadn't thought about it that way."

The air was crisp and clean with the scent of pine, and Orli tried not to let the screaming child next to him get in the way of enjoying the experience. "And you do this every year?" Orli asked as they pulled to a stop.

"Pretty much." Elijah climbed down and then pulled a saw from a basket on the back of the tractor.

"What are you going to do with that?" Orli asked.

Elijah gave him a look. "Cut down a tree."

"They just gave you a saw? They don't even know you. You could be an axe, well, a saw murderer!" Orli exclaimed. The corners of Elijah's mouth twitched up. "They just left me here in the wilderness with a strange man and a weapon."

"Some wilderness. It's a ten minute walk back to the car." Elijah informed him, the smile more pronounced.

"They need an application process and a time delay, or something. This is just not safe."

"I don't think-"

"I mean, Dom could come here, and they would give him a saw, just like that."

Elijah laughed out loud at the thought. "He'd cut off his hand, but probably wouldn't hurt anyone else, so I think it's okay. C'mon. Let's find our tree."

"Sure," Orli agreed easily, Elijah's genuine laugh still ringing in his ears, and followed Elijah into the rows and rows of pine trees. "What about this one?" he suggested.

"Orli, that tree is three feet taller than you," Elijah explained with a smile. "It's too tall for the ceiling. Find one about your height." They walked a couple of minutes. "What about this one?"

"It's got a big hole on this side," Orli said.

Elijah circled around. "Oh yeah. Well, let's keep looking."

Twenty minutes later, Orli was feeling less enthusiastic.

"This one?" Elijah asked.

"Sure," Orli replied distractedly, trying to see how far they'd gotten off the trail. It looked a lot farther than he expected.

Elijah laughed. "You didn't even look at it!"

Orli smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." He gave the tree an evaluating look. It was a few inches taller than Orli and fairly symmetric.

"It's got this one small hole over here," Elijah said, "But I thought we could put that against the wall."

Orli gave it another walk around. "I like it."

"Alright! You realize, though," Elijah grinned, "that once we cut it down, we have to take it."

"I'm game if you are," Orli said with a matching grin.

Elijah sank to his knees and began to saw through the trunk, yelling "TIMBER!" as it fell to the ground, much to Orli's amusement. Elijah attached the tag, and then stood, dusting off his knees. "Now we just have to walk back to the trail," he said brightly, smirking as he bent to pick up the tree.

Orli groaned.

*****

"Why don't you let me drive part of the way home?" Elijah suggested casually while they gathered up the trash from lunch.

Orli snorted in amusement. "You're just upset that Liv said you couldn't drive."

"It was totally uncalled for! I've driven the Superpickle before, and it was fine. She's crazy. Besides," Elijah continued, "I know you're tired after having to experience all that Nature."

"It was stressful," Orli said in a considering tone.

"Exactly. So why don't I drive for a while and give you a break?"

"I don't think Liv would like that very much, though."

"Liv doesn't have to know."

"Well..." Orli said. He have Elijah a long look. "You promise you won't tell Liv?"

"No way," Elijah assured him with a charming smile.

Orli handed over the keys and climbed into the passenger seat. He had to appreciate how manipulative his beautiful boyfriend was.

It only took them a few minutes to return to the back roads that led home, although it would have taken a few minutes more if Elijah had actually stopped at the two red lights he blew through. They were practically the only ones on the road since very few people traveled the day after Thanksgiving.

Orli waited a few minutes, anticipation curling low in the pit of his stomach, before quietly unbuckling his seat belt. He twisted in his seat and crawled into the space between their seats.

"What are you-" A pained groan cut off the question as Orli quickly worked through the fly on his jeans and freed his cock. "You can't be serious," Elijah gasped. Orli ignored him, leaning over and swallowing him whole.

A loud rumbling noise and vibration went through the car, and Elijah jerked the Superpickle back into the center of the lane and away from the bumps along the edge.

"Careful," Orli pulled off to warn him, then laved the top of Elijah's cock with his tongue.

"You - shit!" His eyes flickered rapidly between the road and Orli's head. Orli hummed, knowing it would drive Elijah wild and repeating it when the resultant curse proved him right. Elijah suddenly slammed on the breaks and swerved off the road, throwing the gear stick into park. Orli tried to raise his head and make sure they were okay, but Elijah's hand was on the back of his head, refusing to let him up. "Don't you dare stop," Elijah practically growled, and fuck, that was incredibly hot. Orli used his free hand to press down on his own erection. Elijah's hips were beginning to push upward, more insistent than Elijah'd ever been before. Orli sucked harder and pushed down into the motion to encourage him.

Moans and quiet whimper sounds were pouring continuously from Elijah's mouth. Orli's hand was wrapped around the base of Elijah's cock, and he could feel Elijah's balls tightening. Orli kept up the pressure, both with his mouth and his hand rubbing himself off against his jeans. Elijah's back and hips arched and stalled, and then he came, Orli's name falling from his lips, this time without any fear of being heard, and all it took was another rough shove against his own prick before he was coming, Elijah's cock still in his in his mouth.

Elijah pulled his head off and up, catching his lips in a rough kiss that further bruised his mouth, tongues twining around each other, still hungry for each other even after they'd come. Elijah tugged his head away with some reluctance, fingers still tangled in the hair at the back of his head. "Fuck, I cannot believe you did that."

Orli traced his lips with his tongue, and Elijah's fingers tightened in his hair, a pleasant pressure against his scalp.

"I want to make you come. Come here." The command was reinforced by a gentle tug.

Orli moved closer and gave a low laugh. "You already did."

Elijah raised his eyebrows and eyed the wet patch. "You really do get off on blowing me in the weirdest places, don't you?"

"Oh," Orli said, slightly taken aback. "I hadn't thought about it. I guess I do."

"No complaints here," Elijah assured him and pulled him in for another quick kiss before letting his hair go.

"Alright," Orli said, "Move over."

"What?"

"You're not driving anymore."

"You..." Elijah's eyes narrowed as he unbuckled his seat belt. "You planned this. That's why you let me drive."

"Maybe," Orli answered, unable to keep his hand off Elijah's ass as they switched places and causing Elijah to blush.

"You are such a little fucker."

"And you love it," Orli replied with a wink.

\-----

"Mom?" Elijah called. "Are you getting up?"

"Only if you don't try to force feed me anymore devilled eggs," Deborah said lightly.

"No problem," Elijah agreed easily, then grinned. "There's always more turkey."

Deborah laughed and moved slowly into the main room. Orli was still there, sitting quietly on the sofa and watching them with a soft smile. She smiled back before the gentle glow across the room caught her attention. She gasped and walked into the room to see a Christmas tree standing against the wall, lights twinkling slowly and cranberries already wrapped around. She took a deep breath that smelt of pine and outdoors and let it out slowly. "Oh Elijah..." she whispered. "It's perfect."

"It looked much smaller out at the farm," Elijah said sheepishly, and Deborah laughed.

"They always do, but I could never convince you of that when you were younger."

Elijah smiled at the memories. "We were waiting for you so we could put the ornaments on." He started rifling though the two boxes sitting next to the tree.

Deborah walked over to Orli and took one of his hands. "Thank you," she said.

"It was nothing," Orli told her sincerely.

"No," she argued gently. "It was a very important thing. To both of us." She turned back to Elijah, and he held up a mangled and glittery ornament. Deborah laughed and took it from him. "It's the first ornament Elijah ever made," Deborah explained toOrli. "It's always the first one I put on the tree."

"Even though it's pathetic," Elijah said.

"It's beautiful," Deborah contradicted him. She hung it on the front.

"My dad bought me this one," Elijah said, carefully holding up a glass snowflake that sparkled as it moved. He also hung that one at the front. Then he handed Orli a small box.

"What's this?" Orli asked, eyes widening in surprise.

"You were complaining that you didn't get any gifts on Thanksgiving." He stuck his hands in his pockets nervously.

Orli slipped the ribbon off and opened the box, finding a glass ornament very like the small snowflake Elijah had just hung on the tree, only this was in the shape of an elegant [treble clef](http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/textt/Trebleclef.html). "It's beautiful," Orli said, holding it up to the light.

"I thought you should have your own ornament to put on the tree," Elijah said softly. "If you want."

Orli stood and hung it next to Elijah's glittery creation and the snowflake. He just looked for a minute before turning to Elijah and cupping his cheek in fingers that were slightly shaking. He wanted to kiss him, but knew that Elijah wouldn't be comfortable with that in front of his mom. Elijah seemed to understand, taking his hand and squeezing it. Then he picked another ornament out of the box and hung it took, and soon he andOrli were working their way through the boxes, Deborah on the couch, laughing and calling out instructions.

When they were finished, they sat together and watched it for a while, the flickering lights making their faces glow in the gathering dark and warming up the entire room.


	22. Chapter 22

"Mr. Parker," Elijah called, and then winced when his voice shook.

The older man looked up from packing up his things. His eyebrows shot toward his hairline. "Elijah, right?" Elijah nodded. "Orlando's clarinet lesson was an hour ago. He's not here."

"Uh, yeah, I know. I had a quick question for you, if you have a second."

"Sure," Mr. Parker replied, but Elijah could feel his hesitation. He couldn't blame him, though. No doubt Orli had told him a few of the things he'd done over the years.

"Well, it's just... I know that Orli's parents won't buy him music supplies so for Christmas I was going to get him some of the music he'll need in college. Except I don't know anything about clarinet music."

Mr. Parker smiled, some of the tension leaving his stance. "That's a wonderful idea. I've been loaning him my copies, but he'll really need his own, especially if he's going to Juilliard."

Elijah gaped. "Juilliard?"

"Yeah, he had me send in the letter of recommendation last month," Mr. Parker said, pulling out a notebook and beginning to write out a long list of titles and composers. "I don't think he's sent in his application, though, and he better do it soon. The deadline's in less than a week."

"But - Juilliard? Really?" Elijah almost squeaked, and then backtracked at Mr. Parker's sharp look. "I mean, I know Orli's good. Really good. But... Juilliard?"

Mr. Parker smiled. "He's definitely talented enough to try for it, anyway." He opened his mouth to say more, but then stopped. He handed over the list that Elijah had already forgotten about. "You should talk to him about it," Mr. Parker added finally.

"Uh, thanks," Elijah managed and disappeared into the band hall.

\-----

"So I had a really interesting conversation with Mr. Parker today," Elijah threw out casually as he diced up half of an onion on the kitchen island.

Orli looked up from his calculus problems and frowned. "You talked to Craig?"

Elijah's eyebrows rose. "Oh, I'm sorry, _Craig_?"

Orli flushed slightly. "Well, I've been taking lessons from him for four years. It's a little silly to keep calling him by his last name."

"Yes, clearly. That's why I call Mr. Jackson Peter. Or not." Elijah narrowed his eyes, and Orli flushed darker. "Oh my god. You have a big girlie crush on him," Elijah accused playfully. Orli sighed and leaned back, effectively distracted from his homework. "I don't hear any argument," Elijah said, a grin playing at the corner of his mouth. "You do, don't you?"

"Not - really." He paused, struggling to find the words. "I did for a long time, but not so much anymore. I realized that he'd never, ever go out with a student. And then I met David." Orli shrugged. "He just always listened to me. And he understood how much I love music. No one had ever really ever gotten that before."

"Did you ever..." Elijah trailed off, not sure how to ask without sounding too interested.

"Why, jealous?" Orli flashed him a wide smile before sobering again. "Of course not. I knew he'd say no. And I'm something of a coward when it comes to, you know, starting anything."

Elijah snorted in disbelief.

"It's true!" Orli laughed.

"Do you even remember how we got together?" Elijah asked.

"I remember being blackmailed into action by Liv, and then running away as soon as I'd kissed you."

Elijah laughed. "Point taken."

"So what were you talking about with Craig?"

"How I shouldn't distract you during lessons," Elijah lied, looking down at the onions. "It's important for you to have that practice time if you're going to get into Juilliard."

Silence greeted that remark. Elijah looked up and found Orli staring intently at the table.

"Orli?"

"I haven't applied to Juilliard." His tone was flat, and he still wouldn't meet Elijah's eyes.

"Well, yes," Elijah agreed. "I know that. You want to, though. You got your reference letters sent in. I bet you have the app filled out since it's due in a few days." No response. "Don't you?"

"Why are we even talking about this?" Orli bit out.

"Why didn't you tell me you wanted to go to Juilliard?" Elijah shot back.

"Because I can't go!" Orli snapped, slamming his hand down on the table as he stood.

"Quiet!" Elijah hissed, and Orli froze. They both listened intently for a minute, but no sounds came. Either Deborah was still asleep or she wasn't moving.

"Sorry," Orli said lowly, leaning back against the counter behind him.

Elijah waved off the apology as he set the knife down. He wasn't getting any cooking done. "I don't understand. Why can't you go? You're good enough, and you haven't missed the deadline yet."

Orli sighed. "Do you know what my dad would say if I told him I was going to Juilliard?" Elijah's eyes went wide in sudden understanding. "He was fine with Michigan and Indiana and all those schools, especially Utah, but Juilliard? No way. He's been paying for all my applications, but he'll never give me seventy dollars for Juilliard."

"Is that all? Orli, I can give you seventy dollars."

"I don't want to have to take your money!" Orli snapped again. He looked down, saw his hands were shaking, and folded them to hide it. Elijah hadn't realized how agitated he was. "And that's not all. In February, I'd have to fly out there to audition, and there's no way I can afford that, especially not for a school I have such a low chance of getting into." He took a deep breath. "I still don't see why we're talking about this."

"Uh, because I care about you," Elijah said in tone that indicated that should be obvious.

Orli looked up in surprise, but still looked wary. "But why are you worried about where I'll go to college?"

Elijah shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I mean. I just though that it'd be pretty unlikely that we'd still be together." The words were low and quick, as though Orli didn't really want to say them, and it took Elijah a few seconds to work out what he'd said.

"What?" Elijah choked out. He took a step back and then another until he was up again the counter, the edge cutting into his lower back. "You want to... break up?" He tried so hard to keep his voice level, but it cracked in the middle anyway.

"No!" Orli cried, voice panicked. "No, I don't."

"Then what was that?" Elijah demanded, a spark of anger in his voice.

"It's just - I'm leaving." There was quiet determination in his voice, but his face was tense and sad. "I've applied to schools all over the place. I'm leaving. And you haven't applied anywhere yet, but I figured you might stay. And I didn't think you'd want to be... I mean, if I left, I knew you might just..." Orli didn't seem capable of finishing the thought.

"I've already sent out most of my applications," Elijah said when it was clear Orli couldn't go on.

"You have? You didn't say."

Elijah shrugged. "I was working on them while you were here. I thought you knew."

"Where - where did you apply?"

Elijah gave him a weary smile. "Michigan, Indiana, Rice... a few others. Not Utah, I'm afraid."

Orli's expression was a mix of shock and extreme relief, and it surprised a short laugh out of Elijah. "My schools. But you should go where you want, not just where I picked."

"You chose some of the top universities in the country, Orli. They all have good math and engineering departments. But I don't want to go without you."

"Oh, thank God," Orli said, and crossed the kitchen to catch Elijah in his arms. "I was so afraid I'd lose you," he whispered, his tone full of quiet awe.

Elijah immediately hugged him close. "Fucker," he said, voice rough. "You fucking scared me, talking like that."

"Sorry," he apologized.

"But where did that come from anyway?" Elijah asked. He still didn't understand why Orli'd thought he had any intention of letting him go.

"When David left, he just broke it off with me." Elijah could hear the hurt in Orli's voice. He hadn't realized that David had done so much damage. "Looking back, I can see that he was right, it never would have worked out, but... I would have tried. I was afraid to hope that this time..." Orli shook his head and pulled back slightly. "What about your mom?"

"She knows where I've applied." Elijah sighed. "I don't know that she'll be able to move, but she says we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Orli brushed a kiss against Elijah's temple.

"We've gotten a little off topic," Elijah commented faintly. "And I'm already exhausted, so just say you'll apply to Juilliard already. No, look," Elijah added quickly when Orli started to argue, "The application money is no big deal. And I'm sure we can work out the plane tickets, maybe with Mr. Jackson or something. A fundraiser of some kind. So the only question is: do you want to go to Juilliard?"

"Yes," Orli breathed immediately. "I really do."

"Okay, then. All decided." Elijah laughed a little at Orli's dazed expression. "I'll just have to apply to one more school. Where is Juilliard anyway?"

"New York City."

"Maybe I'll look at NYU or something, then. I dunno. What schools are in New York City?"

"I... You are just..." He couldn't seem to finish his thought, so he kissed Elijah, slow and deep, and tried to show him how he felt.

Dinner was late that night, but no one seemed to care.

\-----

Elijah's lips were still buzzing from the concert as he put his trumpet away and ripped off the clip-on tie. Stupid thing had been cutting into his neck all evening. Man, did he hated the cheap tuxedos they had to wear.

The holiday concert had been a pretty big success. They'd even come out to the performing arts stage on Drake High School's campus. The rest of his section hadn't totally screwed their part in Sleigh Ride, and the audience seemed to get a kick out of Mr. Jackson coming out for the last number dressed as Santa. It was pretty eerie how authentic he looked, actually.

There was only one more week of school left, and Elijah had never looked forward to the oncoming break with so much relief. Senoritis was a real disease, and Elijah had it bad. He was having trouble caring about any part of high school anymore. It didn't help that most of his classes were super boring. Still, just finals to go, and then three and a half weeks of absolutely nothing.

The other trumpets were trailing into the equipment room to put their own horns up now, and one of the percussionists, no need to guess who, was snapping the whip sound effect in everyone's face as they trailed in to get their cases. It always seemed so loud around the rest of the band these days. He'd gotten too used to spending his time in the quiet sanctuary of the music library.

With Orli. Just the thought made him smile.

Claire fought her way over to him through the crowd, trumpet case already hanging from one skinny arm. She tripped over the hem of her black, shiny dress just as she reached him, caught herself and made a face. "I hate these things. Stupid trash bags."

Elijah smirked at the girls nickname for the ugly dresses. At least his tie didn't make him look like he was wearing something made by Hefty.

"Hey, I think Orli is looking for you," Claire said loudly just as it suddenly went quiet around them. She turned a bit pink, then continued in a softer voice, "Out in the lobby."

"Man, what is with you two?" Kevin asked. "You're always fucking together."

"That's because they're _fucking together_ ," came a cry from the back of the room that he didn't recognize. A quiet "Ouch!" followed that, and he had to suppress a smile knowing that Dom had probably goosed whoever it was. He ignored the crowd around him and started gathering up his things.

Kevin's lip curled. "Is that true? You fucking Bloomie? I mean, I always knew he was a fucking whore, but you-"

Elijah wasn't even sure there was enough time for him to really process what Kevin said. He just reacted, moving forward and shutting Kevin up the quickest way he knew how: by driving his fist into Kevin's mouth.

Kevin wasn't suspecting anything like that. He toppled over from the force of the blow and then just sat there on the ground, blood running down his chin and eyes wide.

Elijah couldn't remember if they'd ever seen him truly react on instinct before. Probably not. He's always cool and collected. Even in the past when he was mean, it was a kind of distant cruelty, definitely not this fierce combination of rage and adrenaline.

He made a show of checking his knuckles and then glanced around the room. "Anyone else have something to say?" Dead silence met that question. Even the percussionists were conspicuously quiet. "Good," he said shortly, picked up his things again and swept out of the room.

He heard a roar of conversation start up as the door swung shut behind him.

He took a deep breath and went to find Orli.

\-----

Orli was in the lobby like Claire had said, standing near the doors. He somehow managed to make the suit look like more than the cheap monkey suit it was. His shirt sleeves were rolled up, and he'd also ditched his tie somewhere along the way. He hadn't spotted Elijah yet, leaning against a wall as he waited. He casually shook his hair out of his face, and Elijah didn't think he'd ever seen anything so beautiful.

"Hey," Orli greeted him as he walked over, a grin lighting up his face.

"Hey." He set his trumpet down and leaned against the wall next to Orli.

"I told my mom I'd ask if you needed anything," Orli said, expression vaguely apologetic.

"Nah," Elijah replied. "Other than I need to be getting home soon. You know we're doing okay. Tell her thanks, though." He paused, but finally added, "They didn't come?"

Orli shrugged and sighed. "It's not like I expected them to. Besides, I think there was something going on at church tonight."

At that point, Claire came bustling up to him, looking as if she was about to break out in laughter at any moment. He'd really been expecting Mr. Astin to hunt him down and rail at him, but apparently the directors hadn't heard yet.

"That was awesome!" She drew close and beamed at them.

"What was?" Orli asked.

"You didn't tell him?" Claire asked Elijah, rolling her eyes as he shook his head. She turned back to Orli. "Kevin was calling you a - well, saying some very mean things, and Elijah totally punched him. Right in the mouth! I bet he's still sitting there wondering what happened."

"You - punched him?" Orli asked, eyeing Elijah incredulously. His lips gave a small twitch upward. "But you're so short!" He laughed at Elijah's outraged expression and moved a bit closer to Elijah until their shoulders bumped. "My hero," he teased, but Elijah could tell he was serious for all that.

"You do realize that was pretty much the most dramatic coming out ever, right?" Claire asked. Then, with less certainty, "You do realize that was pretty much you coming out, right?"

Elijah shrugged with careful nonchalance. "Had to happen sometime."

He looked up at Orli, who was leaning even closer. "I love you," Orli whispered, tone so low that Elijah bet Claire hadn't heard him from three feet away. Orli's eyes widened as if he hadn't meant to actually say that, and his hands started to fidget as he waited for Elijah's reaction.

Elijah smiled. "I love you, too." Easiest four words of his life.

Claire cleared her throat and motioned toward the growing crowd back where he'd hit Kevin.

Orli laughed, eyes dancing with joy. "Maybe you should miss the fall out. If you don't leave now, it'll be awhile before you get back."

"You need a ride?"

"Liv's driving me. I have to convince her not to burn her dress."

"Just remind her that it could be worse. It could be pink."

Orli laughed again and then pushed him gently toward the door. "Get out of here."

"I'll see you later?"

"Of course." Orli winked. "Can't get rid of me now."

Orli pushed him again and this time he went, hoping that he was imagining Mr. Astin appearing out of the crowd, but not waiting to find out. He walked quickly to his car, unable to get the wide smile off his face. He breathed in a deep lungful of the cold winter air and laughed, shoving his trumpet in the passenger seat.

He fucking loved band.

EPILOGUE (Don't read if you dislike cliffhangers.)

Orli's back was so tense, but Elijah'd promised that he wouldn't interrupt him during their Calculus final, so he didn't try to annoy Orli into a better state of mind. It didn't work like it used to, anyway.

This was their last final. Two hours and then they'd be done. Elijah planned to sleep for the next three days, at least.

He read through the problems and smiled. This was going to be a piece of cake.

The loud beeping rung throughout the silence classroom, startling Elijah so badly it took him a second to realize it was him. He dug the emergency beeper out of his pocket and pushed the off button, looked up at Orli with wide, panicked eyes for a fraction of a second, and then bolted from his desk and out the door, running flat out as he hit the hallway.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at livejournal [here](http://often-adamanta.livejournal.com/69591.html).


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